Armed police carry a person injured in a bus crash in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, July 16, 2007. [Xinhua]

GUIYANG -- A bus plunged off a highway in southwest China's Guizhou Province, killing 12 people and injuring eight on Sunday, the local government said on Monday.

The bus carrying 20 people hit the guardrail at 2,126 km on state highway No. 324, plunged off the road and crashed into a 10-meter deep valley at 3:10 p.m., said officials with the provincial administration of workplace safety.

Rescuers said 11 people died at the scene and another at hospital early on Monday.

The eight injured are being treated at two leading hospitals in Anlong county.

The bus, owned by a public transport company in the Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Qianxinan, was traveling from Anlong county in Guizhou to Longlin county in the neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Investigators have made little progress so far as the bus driver, also seriously injured in the accident, is still in a coma.