Nine people died and 23 were injured Wednesday in a road accident in Guangyuan City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, local work safety authority said Wednesday.

A locally registered truck and a bus collided head on at about 7:30 a.m. on a highway in Pu'an township of Jiange County.

The bus overturned and plunged off a 4-meter-high cliff, killing seven people at the scene, said a Sichuan Provincial Work Safety Bureau official Wednesday.

Two more people died later during surgery at a local hospital. Another 23 people were injured, including eight seriously, said the work safety official.

The bus had a licensed capacity of 19 people. The number of people aboard the bus was not immediately known.

The conditions of both drivers was also unknown.

The injured were taken to two hospitals in Jiange County.

The police are investigating the cause of the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2009)