A highway pile-up involving at least 31 cars killed 15 people in northwest China’s Gansu province, officials said, leaving dramatic scenes of twisted and burnt-out wreckage.

The pile-up occurred on Saturday after a heavy truck lost control and crashed into a line of vehicles waiting at a toll station on the Lanzhou-Haikou Expressway, state-run China Daily reported on Sunday.

Officials said another 44 people were injured in the pile-up at the toll station which is close to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu.

Investigation into the cause of the accident is underway, the report said.

Last week, 13 people were killed after a fist fight between a woman passenger and a driver caused a bus to plunge from a bridge into the mighty Yangtze River in southwest China.