AlHijjah 28, 1432, Nov 24, 2011, SPA -- At least 17 people died and two were injured after an overloaded light truck plunged into a river in a mountainous area of south-western China's Sichuan province, dpa quoted reports as saying on Thursday. The agricultural vehicle left the road and fell down a cliff towards the Tanggang river in Sichuan's Egu township on Wednesday afternoon, provincial media reported. Most of the victims were construction workers at the nearby site of a hydroelectric plant. One child was among those who died, the reports said. The Sichuan Online website depicted the vehicle as a three-wheeler flatbed truck and suggested that many of the passengers had fallen into the swollen river. Rescue workers took about three hours to reach the remote site of the accident more than 3,000 metres above sea level, the reports said. The accident is the latest of many serious accidents on China's vast road network. Last week, 19 children and two adults died after an overloaded school bus hit a coal truck head-on in the north-western province of Gansu.
