MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) - Thirteen people were killed and 41 injured when a bus plunged into a valley along a mountainous road in China's northern Shanxi province, the official Xinhua agency said on Saturday citing local authorities.

The bus with 54 passengers on board fell 50 meters (164 feet) into a valley in Yangquan city on Friday afternoon, Zhang Yonghong, a traffic policeman from Yangquan, told the agency.

Ten passengers were killed immediately and the other three died on the way to hospital, the agency said. The other 41 people are receiving medical treatment. Three of them were described to be in "critical condition" and six were seriously wounded, the agency quoted an official surnamed Shi in Yangquan's publicity department as saying.

The bus was rented by a healthcare products company to take customers to Hebei as a reward for using products, Xinhua said.

Zhang told the agency that it was drizzling when the tragedy happened and the road was slippery.

China leads in the numbers of road accidents in the world. At least 100,000 people die in road accidents in China each year.