Seven people are confirmed dead and more than 40 others injured after a bus carrying 52 passengers collided with a road barrier in Xinning County in central China's Hunan Province on Saturday morning, local authorities announced.

The accident happened at 11:40 a.m. when the passenger bus, carrying passengers from a company in the capital city Changsha, overturned on the expressway from Changsha City to Xinning County.

The employees were on their way to Langshan Mountain in Xinning.

Rain had made driving conditions unsafe and the bus crashed into the guardrail after the driver hit the brakes.

Four people died at the scene and three died at the hospital, authorities said.

All the injured have been hospitalized.