An overcrowded,speeding bus has crashed into a stationary truck in northeastern India on Tuesday, killing 23 people and wounding 44 others.

The bus was carrying laborers to work before dawn in the Dhubri district of India's Assam state, some 185 miles (300 kilometers) west of the state capital,Gauhati.

Road accidents claim hundreds of lives every year in India. Most are blamed on reckless driving and ageing vehicles.

"The bus carrying 67 passengers hit a stationary potato-laden truck with great speed, leading to the fatalities," police officer Parthasarathi Mahanta was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

Mr Mahanta said the driver of the bus, which had a capacity of only 35 passengers, lost control and collided with the parked truck, reducing both vehicles to "a mass of mangled steel".

The injured have been taken to hospitals in the area.