51 dead in China road, rail accidents

BEIJING - The toll in a train accident Sunday in China’s eastern Jiangxi province has risen to 19, while at least 32 people were killed in a road accident in northwestern Liaoning province, officials said.

About 71 people were also injured, 11 seriously, when the train derailed after being hit by a landslide, Xinhua reported quoting a statement of the rescue headquarters.

The authorities had earlier put the toll at 10.

An official said about 8,000 cubic meters of mud and rocks were removed from the tracks after the accident. Some 2,000 workers were tasked to complete the operation.

The train was en route from Shanghai to Guilin city, when the accident occurred around 2.10 a.m. in Dongxiang county. The Shanghai-Kunming railway line was closed after the accident.

President Hu Jintao has urged the railway authorities to reopen the lines as soon as possible.

At least 32 people were killed in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck in northeastern China.

According to transport officials, the collision occurred on a four-lane expressway in Liaoning province, where maintenance work was underway at a section of the road.

A spokesman of the provincial authority said the truck went in the wrong direction driving out of a service area along the expressway and collided with a passenger bus head-on.

Three occupants of the truck and 28 bus passengers died on the spot while one of the 22 injured succumbed in hospital, he said.