BEIJING » A truck loaded with flammable liquid collided with a bus on a highway in southern China on Saturday, killing at least 38 people.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency said the truck rear-ended the bus around 3 a.m. on the Hukun Expressway in Hunan province, with the truck’s driver and passenger among the dead. Five people were also injured.

Xinhua said the flames destroyed a total of five vehicles before being extinguished five hours later.

Images broadcast on Chinese state television showed both vehicles severely burned and what appeared to be passenger belongings scattered on the road.