Rescuers have revised the number of people missing in a bus accident in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province from 14 to 13 after a passenger was found to have got off the bus before the accident, local authorities said Wednesday.

The bus was actually carrying 22 people, not 23 as previously thought, when it plunged into the Hulan River in Qing'an County at 3 p.m. Sunday, a local publicity official said. The accident happened when the bus was being driven onto a ferry.

Six people, including a 5-year-old girl, were killed in the accident, while the bus driver and two passengers were saved.

Fang Yilin, a 60-year-old passenger and local villager who was thought to be aboard the vehicle, had actually got off the bus before the accident, the official said.

Fang said he went to another city of Hegang to visit relatives from the Qing'an county seat by train that night and returned home Wednesday morning, the official said.

Rescuers were still searching the river in hope of finding the other 13 missing people, he said.