Six people were killed and eight others were injured in a bus accident on an expressway in the northern Hebei Province early on Friday, according to the local work safety bureau.

The accident occurred at 4:50 a.m. in Huanghua City on the expressway linking Tianjin and Shanwei of southern Guangdong Province when a mini bus, carrying 14 people, collided with a truck.

The injured were receiving treatment in hospital, said a provincial work safety bureau spokesman.

All the dead and injured were from the mini bus, he added.

The mini bus, registered in Lankao County in the central Henan Province, was overloaded and was only permitted to carry a maximum of eight people.

The truck, loaded with coal, was registered in Zhangjiakou City in Hebei.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 7, 2008)