BEIJING » A fire on a passenger bus in northeastern China killed at least 10 people and injured 17 on Wednesday, officials said, in the country’s second deadly bus fire in less than a week.

The fire broke out aboard a crowded bus in the city of Jilin early Wednesday morning as the vehicle neared a highway entrance, the provincial government said on its microblog. Reports said 43 people were aboard the bus at the time of the blaze.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire, and police were investigating. Such blazes have been deliberately set in the past in China by passengers carrying grudges against people, the government or society.

Last week, a man suspicious of his wife’s infidelity confessed to boarding a bus in southwestern China and setting the vehicle on fire. Six people died and 35 were injured in that incident.