BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Eleven people were killed when an overloaded bus overturned on a snow-covered highway in eastern China, police said on Monday, bringing the death toll from weather-related accidents over the weekend to at least 21. The accident happened in Anhui province on Sunday when the bus carrying 72 people, 21 more than allowed, overturned in the city of Mingguang. Fifty-one people were injured. Cold weather and heavy snow have struck unusually large swathes of central and eastern China, forcing the closure of highways, causing accidents and disrupting flights. In the central province of Hubei, at least 1.1 million people in 27 cities had been "affected" by snow, with 10 killed, including one crushed under a collapsed gas-station roof in Wuhan, the provincial capital, the China Daily said. It did not say how the other nine died. The National Meteorological Centre on Sunday issued an orange alert, the second highest on a scale of five, for more heavy snow in central and eastern parts of the country. (Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)
A swimmer walks on the partially dried-up riverbed of the Yangtze River in Wuhan, Hubei province January 18, 2008. China's longest river, the Yangtze, is suffering from a severe drought this ...
