Shanxi road accident death toll hits 13

TAIYUAN -- The death toll from a truck collision and resulting explosion in North China's Shanxi Province on Saturday has risen to 13, after another body was found at the scene of the incident.

Rescuers had put the number killed at 12 on Tuesday, but updated it to 13 on Wednesday, as they called an end to their operations.

They found 12 bodies in the tunnel in which the accident happened, and one of the 11 people injured in the accident died in hospital.

At 2:50 pm on Saturday, a coal truck rear-ended one of a convoy of four tanker lorries that were loaded with methanol, a poisonous and flammable liquid often used as a fuel, inside the Yanhou Tunnel of a highway linking Shanxi's Jincheng City and Jiyuan City in Henan Province.

The collision caused a fire and explosion, which is understood to have caused most of the deaths and injuries as it blasted nearby vehicles.

Fifty-three people managed to escape, including four of the drivers behind the wheels of the coal truck and tanker lorries.

The four drivers are "under police control," police said.