Twelve people were killed and twenty-four injured in two traffic accidents on Wednesday and Thursday.

Nine were confirmed dead and another 21 injured in a bus accident in Chuzhou City, in east China's Anhui Province, local police said on Friday.

All the wounded are in a stable condition, according to a local hospital.

The bus, running from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, to Mingguang City in Anhui, hit a river bridge fence whilst driving through rain on highway no.104 and rolled down into the water at 3:45 PM yesterday.

Investigations into the cause of the accident are ongoing, but they have initially suggested driver error.

In Zhengzhou, capital of the central province of Henan, three were killed and three others injured in a head-to-tail traffic collision on an expressway on Wednesday, local expressway police said Thursday.

Five vehicles collided at about 4 AM, killing one person on the spot. Two badly injured people died later in hospital.

Three people injured in the accident are still hospitalized and investigation into the collision is underway.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2005)