36 killed in fireball when Chinese bus they were travelling in collides with tanker carrying methanol

• Just three survived the high impact crash
• The worst road accident in China for more than a year
• China's poorly maintained roads and bad driving habits result in about 70,000 deaths and 300,000 injuries a year

A double-decker bus rammed into a tanker loaded with highly-flammable methanol in northern China early today, causing both vehicles to burst into flames.
Official sources have confirmed 39 people were on the long distance sleeper bus when it crashed. 
Just three survived.

Wreckage: The burnt wreckage of a double-decker sleeper bus and a tanker loaded with highly-flammable methanol

Tragic scene: Police and rescuers remove the bodies from a burnt out double-decker sleeper bus

The tanker had just returned to the road after an early morning rest stop when it was apparently rear-ended by the bus at around 2.40am, close to the city of Yan'an in Shaanxi province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

 

The bus had left Hohhot in Inner Mongolia last night and was headed south to Xi'an city, it said.
Xinhua news photos showed the charred metal skeleton of the bus rammed up against the back of the tanker.

Burnt shell: A policeman surveys the scene after China's worst crash in a year

The survivors have been hospitalised, but their condition has not been described.   
An official with the local Communist Party propaganda bureau in Yan'an confirmed that the crash occurred but was unable to give details and was unsure of the death toll.
But Xinhua has reported a total of 36 bodies were pulled from the charred shell of the bus and three people were taken to hospital.
Road safety is a serious problem in China. 
According to Xinhua, poorly maintained roads and bad driving habits result in about 70,000 deaths and 300,000 injuries a year.

Horror crash:The full scale of the tragic accident can be seen. The burnt out shell of the bus sits directly behind the tanker

A traffic police official said the fact most the passengers were asleep at the time might account for the high number of deaths. 
It is thought they may have been unable to escape because there was just one door. 
The driver and passenger of the tanker were taken into police custody, according to the official China news website.
Pictures from the scene show the front of the tanker is relatively unscathed. 
Meanwhile the bus has been almost completely destroyed by the blaze.
The accident is the worst in China since a fire on an overcrowded sleeper bus carrying flammable materials killed 41 passengers in central China in July last year, according to the country's work safety watchdog.

Police are now investigating the cause of the accident, which happened on the Baotou-Maoming Expressway, spanning the length of China from the northern city of Baotou to the southern province of Guangdong. 

Investigation: Police take evidence and remove wreckage from the scene