GUANGZHOU, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A traffic collision killed two people and injured five others, causing a chemical spill in Guangdong Province on Sunday, the local traffic police said on Monday.

    A cargo truck bumped into the rear of a tanker carrying unknown chemical products at about 1 a.m. on Sunday at a section of a highway linking Beijing to the southern coastal province.

    Two people onboard the truck were killed at the site and the driver of the tanker escaped.

    The chemical leaked and caught fire, but did not further contaminate the environment as most of it was burnt in the blaze, according to officials of the local environment watchdog.

    The nature of the chemical could not be identified.

    The fire was put out after burning for more than three hours, seriously damaging an adjacent tunnel on the Shaoguan Section of the 2,310-km Beijing-Zhuhai highway.

    It will take workers at least one month to repair the damaged tunnel, the road maintenance department said.

    The traffic authority has closed two of the four lanes within the area of the accident.