URUMQI, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region confirmed 25 people were killed in a highway accident on Tuesday.

    Five others injured in the accident were hospitalized, said a source from the autonomous regional emergency response office.

    A coach with 30 people aboard, mostly students and their parents, left Akqi County and was heading for Artux City on regional highway 306. Both Akqi and Artux are inside Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, western Xinjiang.

    The students were on a health check-up trip after having passed high school entrance examinations in the developed eastern areas.

    When the coach reached a mountainous highway section about 299 km away from Akqi, it suddenly lost control and hit the mountain before flipping on its side at 3:30 p.m. Seventeen people were killed instantly, including the driver, identified as Siladu, a member of the ethnic Kirgiz group.

    Eight others died either on the way to the hospital or during surgery, said the source, quoting a preliminary investigation by police in Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture.

    The dead included 15 males and 10 females.

    Among them were 13 students, the youngest being 14 and the oldest 16. They were all from Tongxin Middle School in Akqi, including seven from the Han Chinese background, and five from the ethnic Kirgiz group.

    The remains of 15 people from the ethnic Uygur and Kirgiz groups were claimed and brought home by their relatives. They would be buried according to the customs of their ethnic groups. The corpses of nine Han Chinese and one person of the ethnic Qiang group were at a funeral home in Aksu, a neighboring prefecture.

    Four of the injured were treated at Aksu Prefectural Hospital. One of them was serious in the intensive care unit. Another, who was slightly injured, was treated at the Akqi County Hospital.

    As the accident took place in a remote area, communication is difficult.

    Leaders of the local authorities went to the scene to guide the rescue effort.

    The cause of the accident was still under investigation.

    The county seat of Akqi, located in the western part of Xinjiang, is about 1,180 km away from the regional capital Urumqi.