Screen grab of state-tun TV Channel shows the aftermath of pile-up on Chinese motorway.
The accident happened in snow and rainy weather in the northern province of Shanxi, on an expressway linking Beijing with Kunming, the official news agency Xinhua reported.
17 people died and 37 others were injured in a 56-vehicle pileup due to snow and rainy weather in north China's Shanxi pic.twitter.com/Gas0UAKRZL
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) November 22, 2016
Pictures of the scene showed lorries scattered haphazardly across the road, some of them overturned, and burnt-out wrecks of cars after the crash Monday.
Motorway pile-up leaves 19 dead
Another 37 injured people were stable after treatment, Xinhua said.
Traffic accidents are common in China, with the World Health Organization estimating that more than 260,000 people were killed on the country's roads in 2013.
‘People trapped inside carriages were yelling for help’
The WHO figures are strikingly higher than official pronouncements, in a country where government data are often questioned, with the National Bureau of Statistics reporting 58,539 traffic fatalities that year -- less than a quarter of the WHO's approximation.
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