Image copyright AFP Image caption The serious accident was a result of faulty brakes, according to the lorry driver

More than a dozen people have been killed after a lorry lost control at a toll station in north-west China.

Dozens more were injured when the vehicle collided with a line of waiting cars in Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu, on Saturday.

The cause of the 31 vehicle pile-up is under investigation.

However, according to China's Xinhua news, the lorry driver told authorities his brakes failed as he travelled down a hill towards the toll station.

Xinhua puts the death toll at 15, with another 44 people injured.

Image copyright AFP Image caption An aerial view shows the scale of the pile-up

The crash comes less than a week after 13 people were killed when a bus plunged off a bridge and into a river in Chongqing , south-western China.