GUANGZHOU -- Five migrant workers were dead and three were injured Monday afternoon after lightning struck their shanty town in Weidi Town of Luoding City in south China's Guangdong Province, sources with the Luoding city government said Tuesday.

The eight migrant workers were in their workplace accommodation in the Meiziling industrial zone at about 3:00 p.m. Monday when the lightning struck. Five were knocked unconscious and died shortly after. The three injured workers were treated at a local clinic. Their lives are not in danger.

All the eight are from southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The provincial weather department and workplace safety supervision bureau had sent staff to the accident site for investigations.

Fifty-six people have been killed by lightning in China in the first five months of the year. Last year lightning was blamed for the deaths of 717 people and caused injuries to 640 people.

Last month, lightning killed seven pupils and injured 44 others in a village school in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.