A traffic accident killed eight people and injured 15 others on an expressway in east China's Jiangxi Province on Tuesday morning, local authorities said.

A mini-bus ran into a truck that was parking on the road after its transmission shaft broke down at about 3 a.m. on an expressway linking Beijing with southeastern city of Fuzhou in Jinxian County, Nanchang City of Jiangxi, a spokesman with the provincial traffic police authorities said.

Eight people aboard the mini-bus were killed on the spot, and 15 others were left injured, four of them in serious condition, the spokesman said.

All the injured students have been rushed to hospital, he said.

The mini-bus carried two drivers and 21 primary and high school students when the accident took place, he said. All of the students were children of migrant farmer workers in Wenzhou City in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The mini-bus was rent by the parents of these students, who were on the way back to Wenzhou after visiting their hometown in the Yangxin County of central China's Hubei Province, the spokesman said.

Both of the two drivers were killed in the accident, he said.

The mini-bus is allowed to carry only 12 passengers, but it carried 23 people when the accident happened, the spokesman said.

Investigations into the accident have been underway.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)