NANNING - At least four people were killed and another eight injured in a pileup of five vehicles on an ice-clad expressway section in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region Friday morning.

The Quanzhou City Fire Department said all the casualties were people in the two sedans which were deformed after being squeezed by a truck and an oil tanker.

The pileup occurred before 6 am on the expressway linking Quanzhou and Xing'an in the region, where cold snaps led to icy road.

The frost weather has also affected southern province of Guizhou, where pileups involving 20 vehicles killed three people and injured many others Thursday evening on an expressway linking the province with Xiamen city in eastern Fujian province.

The China's Central Meteorological Station reported Friday morning that icy rain will linger in the next 24 hours in Guizhou, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. Sleet and snow weather will persist the country's eastern and southern regions till Sunday.