Truck ploughs into crowd in China, 19 dead: official

Nineteen people were killed when a truck ploughed into a crowd in a village in northern China's Hebei province, local officials said on Friday.

Nineteen people were killed when a truck ploughed into a crowd in a village in northern China's Hebei province, local officials said on Friday.

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The accident happened late on Thursday in the village of Zhaozhuangzi in Luanxian county, an official at the county public security office said.

"Nineteen people died -- it's because the truck's brakes failed," the official said, without giving further details.

The official Xinhua news agency said 13 others were hospitalised after the incident.

Police have detained the driver and owner of the truck, and an investigation has been opened, Xinhua said.