MEXICO CITY, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Eight people died and 24 more were injured on Wednesday in the eastern Mexico state of Veracruz, when an articulated truck carrying citrus fried crashed into a passenger bus, Veracruz's Public Security Department said.

    The accident took place in the early hours of Wednesday on the northern Veracruz Tihuatlan-Gutierrez Zamora highway, when the truck entered the oncoming lane and hit the coach, belonging to the Autobuses de Oriente company, head on.

    Police identified two of the eight dead as truck driver Otoniel Francisco Juarez Galvan and bus driver Miguel Angel Diaz de Leon.

    The injured were taken to hospitals in Poza Rica and Papantla, while the corpses were taken to the Forensic Medical Service in Tihuatlan.

    The bus left the Tamaulipas state city of Tampico on Tuesday night heading for Veracruz's capital, Xalapa, 300 km from Mexico City. It was carrying 36 people at the time of the accident.