Two transport accidents in China have claimed dozens of lives, with a passenger train derailed by a landslide and a truck colliding with a bus.

State media said 32 people were killed on Sunday when a truck travelling in the wrong direction on an expressway collided head-on with a bus in the country's northeast.

Another 21 people were injured and sent to hospital.

The collision occurred on a section of the expressway that was undergoing maintenance in the city of Fuzin in Liaoning province, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Derailed

In another incident, Chinese state television said a landslide in eastern China derailed a passenger train early on Sunday morning, killing at least eight people and injuring 55.

The train was bound for the tourist destination of Guilin when it was derailed in a mountainous area near Fuzhou city in eastern Jiangxi province.

Heavy rains caused a landslide that buried the railway tracks, and the train derailed when it crashed into the huge mound of dirt and debris, China Central Television said.

Xinhua said about 2,000 rescuers, including firefighters, police and soldiers, managed to evacuate at least 280 people who were trapped inside the carriages.

Chinese authorities have launched an investigation into the accident.