Ten Koreans killed in Philippine traffic accident

MANILA (Reuters) - Ten South Korean nationals, many of them Baptist pastors, were killed in the northern Philippines when the van in which they were travelling slammed into a concrete wall at high speed, officials said on Thursday.

The accident occurred at midday on Wednesday in the town of Bolinao in Pangasinan province. Six men, three women and a six-year-old girl, all Koreans, were killed.

Wilfredo Castelo, a local official in Bolinao, told Reuters that it was raining hard at the time of the accident and that witnesses had seen the van weaving before it hit the wall of a warehouse by the side of the road.

All 10 occupants of the vehicle were killed. Five of the victims were tourists, including a couple on their honeymoon, while the other five were residing in the Philippines, he said.

The tourists were to fly back home on Thursday after visiting various tourist spots in the northern Philippines, he said.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by David Fogarty)