At least 13 passengers lost their lives in a road accident involving a minibus and a truck on a major highway in central China, authorities confirmed on Thursday.
Traffic police reported that the crash happened in the early hours of Thursday in Henan Province, close to Nanyang, a major city with a population of around nine million people. The collision took place along the G40 expressway, a key route connecting Shanghai in eastern China to Shaanxi Province in the north.
Officials said the minibus, which was only permitted to carry nine passengers, had 16 people on board at the time of the crash. Three survivors sustained injuries.
Investigations into the cause of the accident are still ongoing, with no immediate explanation released by authorities. The Ministry of Public Security has also sent a team to support efforts to determine what led to the crash.