China road crash kills eleven, injures nine

BEIJING: Eleven people died and nine others were injured after a traffic collision in north China´s Hebei province, a report said Saturday.

The crash, involving a bus carrying 19 people and a lorry, happened Friday on a national highway in the city of Zhangjiakou, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

One of the injured is still in a serious condition, the agency cited a city government official as saying.

The drivers of the two vehicles are being treated in hospital under police custody, and the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Deadly road accidents are common in China, where traffic regulations are often flouted or go unenforced by police.

The country´s frequently overcrowded long-distance buses are particularly prone to fatalities.

In May, 11 young South Korean and Chinese children were among 13 people killed when a school bus burst into flames in a tunnel in Shandong province.

Authorities later accused the driver, who died, of intentionally setting the bus on fire.

Ten people were killed and 38 injured in March when a bus collided with a cement truck in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

Last November, a pile-up on an expressway in the northern province of Shanxi killed 17 people and damaged 56 vehicles.