(http://web.coral.synacor.com/api/hangar.php/c21hcnRjcm9wOjMwMDoyMDUsc21hcnRyZXNpemU6MzAwOjIwNTox/http://newsimages.coral.synacor.com/ap_photos//af2bb701-876d-4d32-af79-5d15f61262f3.jpeg) (http://forums.dctransit.info/read.php?id=19196448&ps=1012&cat=&cps=0&show=big&lang=en) Photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency
BEIJING (AP) — A double-decker bus rammed into a tanker loaded with highly flammable methanol on a northern Chinese highway, causing both vehicles to burst into flames in one of two serious accidents that left 47 dead over the weekend.
The official Xinhua News Agency said 39 people were on the long-distance sleeper bus when it crashed and only three survived. It said the survivors were hospitalized, but didn't describe their condition.
The tanker had just returned to the highway after a rest stop when it was apparently rear-ended by the bus at around 2:40 a.m. close to the city of Yan'an in Shaanxi province, the official China News website said.
The bus had left Hohhot in Inner Mongolia and was headed south to Xi'an city, it said.
Xinhua photos showed the charred metal skeleton of the bus rammed up against the back of the tanker.
An official with the local Communist Party propaganda bureau in Yan'an confirmed that the crash occurred but was unable to give details and the final death toll.