The owner of the truck involved in a traffic collision that killed 24 persons on an expressway last weekend in Beijing has been detained, sources with local police said Thursday.

The tragedy occurred at about 8 p.m. Sunday when a calcium carbide-loaded truck from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region crashed with a Beijing passenger bus due to brake failure at a section of the Badaling Expressway in the Changping District in central-western part of Beijing.

The two vehicles overturned and fell into a 20-m-deep ditch and caught fire, killing 24 on the spot and injuring nine others.

The drivers of both vehicles were believed to have died in the accident, for all the survivors claimed themselves to be passengers.

Duan Yingchun, 35, from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, was detained Tuesday by the Changping branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, a police officer, who declined to be named, with the bureau, told Xinhua.

Duan admitted the truck had brake problems and he had been following the truck before the collision happened, the police officer said.

Duan was suspected of instigating and conniving at the truck driver's illegal driving, the sources said.

Further investigation into the accident is going on.

Source: Xinhua