Eight people were killed in a freeway accident in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Wednesday, a local source said.

At about 11 a.m., a long-haul truck suddenly ran into three vehicles that had pulled into formation waiting to pass on an elevated bridge near Chuankou. The bridge was on a freeway linking Xi'an and Tongchuan, a city about 100 kilometers north of Xi'an, said Tongchuan City traffic police.

An officer in charge of freeway traffic with the Tongchuan Traffic Police Detachment said before the accident there had been temporary congestion. Police, at the time, were in the process of clearing the freeway from the aftermath of a minor accident that had happened not far from the elevated bridge.

Out of the three vehicles in the fatal accident, a locally registered multi purpose vehicle (MPV) with nine people aboard was the worst hit as eight died, including the driver. The other passenger was injured.

A passenger in another vehicle received bone fractures. The long-haul truck was carrying a trailer loaded with calcium carbide. It belonged to a Jiaozuo City logistics company in Henan Province.

The injured remained hospitalized.

The driver and one other person in the truck were in police custody.

The cause of the accident was under further investigation.

(Xinhua News Agency January 3, 2008)