At least 27 people were killed and four seriously injured when a bus veered off a bridge in southwest China on Tuesday, police said.
The accident occurred on a mountain highway in the outlying Qianjiang district at 0250 hrs local time [1220 IST], they said.
While 25 people were killed on the spot, two others died later -- one on his way to a nearby hospital and the other during emergency treatment, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The sleeper bus belonged to a company in Chongqing and was bound for Qianjiang district.
The cause of the accident is not yet known.
Road accidents killed 23,411 and injured 118,887 people in the first quarter of this year, resulting in direct property loss of approximately $ 59 million, the ministry of public security said recently.