Seven people were confirmed dead and 25 others were injured when a bus hit a truck on an expressway in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Tuesday night, the local traffic police said on Wednesday.

The accident occurred at 9:30 p.m. on the Xi'an-Lintong Expressway in the eastern suburbs of the provincial capital Xi'an.

The cause of the accident is still unknown. The injured passengers are being treated at four local hospitals.

The Xi'an-Lintong Expressway, running 24 kilometers, opened in 1990 as the first expressway in western China.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2008)