XI'AN - Eight bus company employees have been detained in connection with a traffic accident that killed 36 people in late August in northwest China's Shaanxi province, local police said Saturday.

Eight employees of the Hohhot Transportation Group Corporation, which is based in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region's capital of Hohhot, were detained on Thursday, according to the public security bureau of Shaanxi's Ansai county, where the accident took place.

Two managers, a bus driver, a conductor and several safety supervisors are among those detained, the officer said.

The accident happened on the morning of August 26, when a double-decker sleeper bus burst into flames after rear-ending a methanol tanker on a highway in Ansai county, killing 36 people and injuring three others.

A further investigation into the case is under way.