At least 29 people were killed on an expressway in east China's Jiangxi Province when a truck, apparently carrying fireworks and gunpowder, exploded early Thursday morning, local police said.

The accident occurred at about 4:00 AM near the city of Shangrao, when a Zhejiang-bound truck exploded, destroying a nearby long-distance bus. The double-decker bus, carrying more than two dozen passengers, was bound for eastern Zhejiang Province from Shenzhen, in southern Guangdong Province.

The blast, which could be heard as far as two kilometers away, damaged six houses and injured some local people.

Seven of the injured have been hospitalized. Two of them are drivers of other vehicles near the scene of the explosion and five are residents of the nearby village.

Police were unable to give an exact death toll yet, saying that the force of the blast had dismembered some of the victims. Twenty-nine bodies have been recovered so far.

This is China's fourth fatal bus explosion and fire in as many weeks, leaving dozens killed or injured. There have been no indications of that any of the blasts were deliberately caused.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn March 17, 2005)