BEIJING, July 13 — A Chinese bus driver upset that his house would be demolished had been drinking on the job before he sent the vehicle plunging into a reservoir, killing 21 people, state media said today.

The bus carried students preparing to sit their annual college entrance exam when it crashed into Honghsan Lake in southwest China’s Guizhou province last Tuesday, the local emergency management department said earlier.

The driver, surnamed Zhang, "was unhappy about his life and about the demolition of the public-owned house he rented,” the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the public security bureau in Anshun city.

Zhang "is suspected of conducting ‘an extreme crime’” that targeted a group of people "to cause impact in society,” it said.

Police found that Zhang, 52, had been drinking alcohol while passengers got on and off the bus, Xinhua reported.

When he neared the reservoir he waited until other vehicles passed then suddenly sped up across five lanes and through the guardrail, it said.

In addition to the dead, 15 people were hurt. — AFP