Truck overturns in China killing 24 rail workers

China: At least 24 railway workers were killed when a truck transporting them to work overturned Saturday in northwest China, state media reported.

Four others were also injured in the accident that occurred as the workers were being taken in a light truck to a railway construction site in Lintao county, Gansu province, Xinhua news agency said.

There were 27 passengers and a driver in the truck when it overturned in a mountain tunnel, the report said, adding that the vehicle was designed to carry construction material and two people.

Xinhua initially reported 21 dead in the incident, but three other workers succumbed to their injuries after being taken to hospital, the agency said later. A preliminary investigation determined that brake failure was the cause of the accident, it said.

Earlier this month, China's railways ministry ordered delays to ongoing rail projects following a deadly high-speed accident between two bullet trains in July that left at least 40 people dead and nearly 200 injured.

According to Xinhua, the railway workers killed Saturday were working at a site on the Lanzhou-Chongqing line, but the report did not say if the line was a high speed railway.

China has developed its vast transport network at breakneck speed, building the world's largest high-speed rail system from scratch in less than a decade.

Beijing, Sunday, AFP