A bus with 36 people on board collided with a taxi at about 11:40 PM on Saturday near Jiujiu Bridge in Huzhou Economic Development Zone of the eastern province of Zhejiang and killed 22, according to local police yesterday.

Police said the bus driver tried to avoid further damage by turning the steering wheel abruptly, but the bus broke the bridge guardrail and fell into the six-meter-deep river.

The remaining people aboard the bus were slightly injured, and Wang Rendong, the bus driver, has been taken into custody.

The taxi was carrying four people when the accident occurred. Its driver Zhu Weiyang and two passengers had minor injuries, and the other passenger is safe and sound, the police said.

Roads swollen with tourist traffic have resulted in at least 10 major accidents, claiming at least five lives each, during the weeklong National Day holiday, the Ministry of Public Security's traffic management department said at the weekend.

At least 326 million trips were made by road during the holiday, one of three "golden weeks" adopted in 1999 that regularly test the nation's transport infrastructure.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily October 10, 2005)