An official Chinese news agency says at least 36 people were killed and 13 others injured in a crash on an expressway in the country's northwest.

Xinhua News Agency reported Friday, citing local police, that a coach crashed into the wall of a tunnel on an expressway in the province of Shaanxi.

The accident occurred late Thursday as the coach was on its way to Luoyang, a city in central China, from Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Xinhua says the injured have been sent to the hospital and rescue efforts were ongoing.