A file photo of Xu Lang [Photo: Sohu.com]

Chinese driver Xu Lang died from a serious head injury in a hospital in Orenburg, Russia on Tuesda, CCTV reports.

Earlier reports said that Xu Lang was seriously injured on Monday in an accident during the fifth leg of the ongoing Transoriental Rally in Russia.

As a trailer was trying to tow Xu's offroader out of the mud, the hook suddenly broke off and hit the driver in the forehead.

Monday's race in Orenburg, the last segment of the tournament in Russia, was 630 kilometers long.

The race kicked off in St. Petersburg, Russia on June 12, and will travel through Kazakhstan and China before reaching the finish line in Beijing on June 28.

Xu Lang, a driver for the Nissan Zhengzhou Corp team, was in fifth place before the Orenburg race, the highest placeholder of the four Chinese competitors.

He finished 19th in the 2006 Paris-Dakar Rally, the best record ever by a Chinese driver in the world's most esteemed rally.