Twelve people, including 11 kindergartners, were killed Tuesday when a school bus crashed and then burst into flames as it traveled through a tunnel in Weihai, Shandong province.

All the children were students at an international school in Weihai in Northeast China, local authorities said.

According to the city's publicity department, 13 people were on the bus at the time of the accident, about 9 am, inside Taojiakuang tunnel in Huancui district of Weihai.

Those killed include five South Korean children, six Chinese students and the bus driver, with the Chinese teacher on board badly burned.

Footage posted on Chinese social media showed flames leaping from the sides of a tall vehicle and black smoke billowing out of the tunnel's entrance.

Several fire engines and police cars stood near the tunnel's entrance.

The bus was rented by Zhongshi South Korea International School in Weihai to carry children to the school's kindergarten.

The online introduction of the school shows it offers kindergarten, primary school, middle school and high school education, mainly for children of foreigners living in Weihai, a port city on the eastern coast of the province across the Yellow Sea from the Korean Peninsula.

The Shandong provincial government has formed an accident investigation team headed by Sun Licheng, the vice-governor who oversees Shandong's public security, production safety and emergency management.

In April, 12 people were killed in Chenzhou, Hunan province, when a car turned over due to brake failure.

In March, 10 people were killed and 38 injured when a bus collided with a cement truck in Lincang, Yunnan province.

zhaoruixue@chinadaily.com.cn