A tank truck carrying 25 tons of toxic chemical overturned early on Thursday on a freeway in east China's Zhejiang Province, causing a major spill, according to local sources.

The accident took place around 1:12 AM on Thursday when the tank truck heading for Wenzhou, a booming city, on the Jinhua-Lishui-Wenzhou freeway ran into the opposite lane after its left front tire went flat, and then landed on its roof, leaking all the chemical -- confirmed to be dimethylformanide, commonly known as DMF, a toxic organic solvent -- on the freeway.

The traffic on the freeway was suspended temporarily because of the spill.

Local environmental workers used water to dilute and sweep the chemical off the freeway, said local sources. Traffic on the concerned freeway was resumed at 10 AM.

No report about the immediate damage of the spill is available at the moment.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2007)