Twenty-five passengers were killed on Sunday when their bus plunged off a road in the southern province of Hunan, the official agency said. On Saturday, 10 died in a similar accident in a neighbouring region.

The crashes, which also injured 60 people, came in the middle of the New Year holiday, China's busiest travel week, during which hundreds of millions of people hit the road.

The bus which crashed in Hunan was carrying 60 people when it left the road and plunged 300 metres, Xinhua said. As well as the 25 dead, 12 were injured, it said. Local authorities had been ordered to investigate.

In Saturday's accident, an inexperienced bus driver trying to avoid another vehicle sent his bus off the road and down a 100-metre (330-ft) slope near the city of Hechuan, about 50 km (30 miles) north of Chongqing.

That wreck killed 10 and injured 48, Xinhua said.

Traffic accidents kill more people in China each year than any other kind of mishap. State media said last year that more than 260 people die in road accidents in China on average each day.

(People's Daily February 19, 2002)