A pile-up involving four vehicles killed eight people and injured two others in central China's Hunan Province early on Friday, local traffic police said.

The accident took place at about 1:26 a.m. on an expressway near Xiangtan City, when two trucks, a car and a long-distance bus collided, a police spokesman said.

All the eight dead -- six men and two women -- were in a Nissan sedan. They were killed on the spot, the spokesman said.

A female driver from a Hubei-registered truck was injured slightly, while a male driver of the same truck suffered serious head injuries. Both were taken to a nearby hospital.

The accident temporarily snarled traffic on the expressway, which links Beijing and the southern city of Zhuhai.

Speeding and driver fatigue probably caused the pile-up, the police spokesman said.

Local police are further investigating the accident, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2008)