Not one bit of evidence is being overlooked at the scene of Wednesday's fatal bus crash. Survivors and those first on the scene say there was panic and chaos in the moments following the crash.
The panic was captured in a photo taken by witness Bissal Basnet when he stopped to help.
"People were screaming 'help', trying to get our attention," he told Newshub.
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Basnet helped the injured until emergency services arrived.
"One lady [was] trying to walk, she couldn't properly, [so] I grabbed her on my back," he said.
However, Basnet was blocked from entering the bus.
"If someone let us go in, maybe we [could have] saved their lives," he said.
The tour bus is now is locked inside a yard, a crucial piece of evidence as police investigate how it veered off the wet road on the outskirts of Rotorua.
A passenger onboard says the bus lost control when it came around the corner. The driver braked suddenly, and the bus flipped 360 degrees down the side of State Highway Five.
A tourist identified as Mr Wang, whose wife was injured in the crash, told SkyKiwi it was their first trip overseas.
"A lot of the seriously injured people were crushed... they tried to pull them... but the injured people were shouting not to," he said.
Ten translators have been called in to help police communicate with the survivors.
"It is a very unfortunate event, but we are doing the best we can to support them," one translator told Newshub.
"It would be a tragedy to be stranded in a country where English is your second language, but they wouldn't have felt alone yesterday," says Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick.
Police are now asking for witnesses to come forward.
Another witness, bus driver Mo Sharrif said he saw a speeding bus on the road minutes before the crash.
"It was, from my point of view, a little bit over speed. He passed a truck and trailer, and the truck and trailer wasn't happy," said Sharrif.
It's not possible to verify if the bus he saw was the one that crashed.
Flowers, laid by the Chinese Ambassador, now mark the scene of the tragedy, which claimed the lives of four adults and a child.
Newshub.
