Twenty students and one teacher were confirmed dead and another 16 injured in a highway accident that occurred in Qinyuan County, north China's Shanxi Province, on Monday, according to local traffic police this morning.

At around 6 AM yesterday, a heavy-duty truck with a trailer veered to one side on a village highway after running into a group of students and teachers jogging on the road, said Nan Xinyan, a county traffic police official.

Eighteen were killed on the spot and three others died later in hospital. Another 16 are still hospitalized, said Nan, adding that further investigations into the cause of the accident are ongoing.

The province's education authorities have since issued orders preventing students jogging or doing exercise on streets or highways and demanded safety inspections of all schools.

Today's China Daily reported that the ministries of public security and education have dispatched officials to the county to investigate the case.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily November 15, 2005)