Six people have been killed and 34 others injured in a multi-vehicle pile-up on an expressway in north China's Shanxi Province, local police said on Thursday.

A vehicle crashed into a barrier on the Wuxiang section of the Taiyuan-Changzhi expressway at 11 PM Wednesday, starting a pile-up involving 14 vehicles including several buses.

The other 13 vehicles either swerved to avoid a crash but caused further accidents or crashed into the vehicles ahead of them, leaving six people dead and 34 injured.

Local police sources said there was ice on the expressway when the accidents happened, which is partly to blame for the fatal accidents.

All the injured people are in hospital.

After terminating the rescue operation at 4 AM Thursday, police reopened the Wuxiang section of the expressway. They are investigating the cause of the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2007)