A bus veered off road and rolled over early Saturday morning in an expressway section near Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, killing five passengers and leaving three others seriously injured, according to the local police.

The 43-seat passenger bus en route from Hangzhou to Ningbo in Zhejiang had 42 people on board. It veered and hit the traffic fence, leaving a 30-meter-long nick, at the 27 km site of the expressway from Hangzhou.

Police said they found large quantities of rawhide scattered on the road, which might have caused the accident and four other minor traffic accidents on the section.

Police have caught the rawhide truck for investigation.

All the injured are out of danger in hospital.

The bus was operated by a transport company registered in east China's Anhui Province.

(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2008)