Two people from Taiwan were dead and five were missing after a tour bus carrying a group of Taiwan passengers plunged into the Jiulongjiang River in Zhangzhou, Fujian province on Friday, China News Service reported.

The incident happened at about 12:30 pm, when the tour bus was passing Zhangzhou. As of 2 pm, 19 of the 26 Taiwan passengers had been rescued.

Su Shulin, governor of Fujian province, urged Zhangzhou city's public security and transportation authorities to speed up the rescue operation and find the reason for the incident.

The 19 passengers have been rushed to a local hospital and were receiving treatment. The search and rescue work was still underway.