Five students died and 39 were injured when a bus rolled into a ravine in east China's Shandong Province Saturday.

The 53-seat bus, carrying 49 passengers, plunged off a road into a 4-meter-deep ravine in Yishui County at about 9:40 a.m., an official with the publicity department of the county government said.

The official said it was raining at the time and the road was slippery.

Three students died at the scene and two others died in hospital, according to a traffic police.

Another 39 were injured, including two seriously, the police said.

Seven of the passengers were teachers and 38 were schoolchildren aged 12 to 15 from the No. 2 Lucheng Junior Middle School in Zibo city in central Shandong.

The bus belonged to a travel agency solely funded by state-owned Shandong Communication and transportation Group.

Police are investigating the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2009)