A total of six people died and 11 were injured in two Wednesday morning pile-ups on a fog-covered highway in central China's Hubei province, local police said.

A bus collided with a truck at about 7:40 a.m. on the highway between Wuhan and Yichang, two major cities in Hubei. With visibility reduced by heavy fog, two trucks following behind also crashed.

Of the 45 people on the bus, three died at the scene and two others died after treatment failed. Ten passengers, including one who was seriously injured, are being treated at hospital, Hubei provincial police said in the afternoon.

A nine-vehicle pile-up occurred about 400 meters away just eight minutes later, leaving one person dead and another person seriously injured, police said.

Traffic on the highway resumed at 9:30 a.m. after police cleared the site.