NANCHANG: At least 16 people died Saturday in a highway rear-end collision in east China's Jiangxi Province, local authorities said.

A road maintenance vehicle carrying 25 people was hit by a truck behind at about 9 am in Suichuan County on the expressway that links Daqing City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong Province, said the information office of Jiangxi provincial government.

The maintenance vehicle belonged to the highway administration of Jiangxi Communications Department, while the truck was from Henan Province. The rescue was continuing.