BEIJING: Eight people including several children were killed when a kindergarten director lost control of an SUV and plunged into a pond in southeast China, state media reported Wednesday. The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon in Pengze county, a rural area 480 kilometres (300 miles) west of Shanghai dotted with small bodies of water and interlacing streams. The crash took place on a downhill section of road likely made slippery by recent rainfall, according to New Security, a publication under the state-run People’s Daily Press. The seven-seat SUV was typically used to transport children attending a private kindergarten in the area, the report said. “Several children from the kindergarten were in the vehicle at the time of the accident,” it said, citing local officials. Blasts and fire shatter Pennsylvania nursing home, killing at least two A previous statement published overnight by county security authorities confirmed that eight people had died including the driver, identified as a 49-year-old woman surnamed Luo. The statement gave no information on the other victims but said an investigation was ongoing. One local villager said that his friend’s four-year-old child was among the victims, according to the New Security report.