Nine people have been confirmed dead and another three injured in a traffic accident on an expressway from Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, to Daqing, a petrochemical production base.

On Sunday afternoon, on a section 616 kilometers from Harbin, a truck hit the rear of another vehicle.

At 3:27 PM, while a local traffic police officer from Daqing and another eight people were trying to pull the truck away with a wrecker, a passing car ran into them.

Nine people were killed immediately, and three others in the car were injured.

Seven of the dead have been identified, including the police officer, a worker from Daqing Petrochemical Plant and the driver of the wrecker.

No details were available about the progress of those injured, and the cause of the accident is being investigated. 

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2005)