A bus collision along a desert highway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has left at least one person dead and 10 others injured, sources with the local government said on Thursday.

The accident occurred around 6:00 a.m. Thursday on a highway that runs from Hotan prefecture at the southern part of Xinjiang to Alar City in the north. A bus rear-ended a truck that was parked on the roadside, an official with the Hotan government said.

The bus then crashed head-on into another bus that was coming in the opposite direction.

One driver was killed. Four passengers were seriously injured and six others sustained minor injuries. All were hospitalized in Hotan.

The 424-km Alar-Hotan highway is the second route across the Taklamakan Desert in southern Xinjiang. It opened in July this year.

(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2007)