CHINA> Regional
Five dead, five injured in coal pile slide
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-12 08:54

KUNMING -- Five people were killed and another five injured as coal fragments slid from a pile at a coal yard in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Saturday.

The accident happened at about 5:30 p.m. at a coal yard of Taiyu Economic and Trade Co., Ltd. in Dahe Town of Fuyuan County, in Qujing City, said a spokesman of the county government on Sunday.

The sliding buried nine workers at the yard and killed a passerby at the scene.

Three of the trapped workers had been dead of suffocation when they were taken out of the pile. The other six people were rushed to hospital but one of them died on the way.

The five injured were in stable condition in a local hospital by Sunday night. The coal yard has resumed operation.

Investigation into the accident is underway.