Nine people were confirmed dead and 14 others injured when a falling rock hit a bus in southwest China's Sichuan Province Friday night.

The bus, en route from Shimian to Hanyuan county in the central western city of Ya'an, lost control and slid down a 10-meter slope after it was hit by the rock at 8:20 PM on State Highway No. 108, a spokesman with the Shimian county government said.

The injured were in stable condition and families of the dead had arrived, he said.

Investigators blamed the accident on a landslide.

The city government of Ya'an closed down the Shimian-Hanyuan section of the highway for a safety overhaul starting on Saturday.

It has also demanded a safety check along the provincial highway No. 306, which zigzags across the mountainous areas of western Sichuan where geological disasters are prone in summer.

By Friday night, a massive mud-rock flow triggered by storm had killed 12 people and injured 18 in Jiulong county in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, west of Ya'an.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2007)