Thirteen people, including eight kindergarten children, died on Thursday evening in two separate accidents in central China's Hunan Province, local authorities have said.

Six children and a driver died when a kindergarten bus overturned into a roadside ditch in Qiyang county, over 200 km southwest of Changsha, the provincial capital, said Chen Weiping, director of the county work safety bureau.

The headmaster of the Lejia kindergarten, in Huangjiadu Village, the remaining passenger, was still missing when the mini-bus was hauled out of the two-meter deep water at 2:00 AM Friday, Chen added.

Rescuers said they weren't sure when the accident happened. They began the search and rescue operation shortly after receiving a villager's report at 6:30 PM Thursday.

In another accident in the same county a three-storey building collapsed at 8:40 PM on Thursday, killing four parents and two elementary school students, said Jiang Tao, chief of the county committee of the Communist Party of China on Friday.

Jiang said another seven people had been rescued by 7:00 AM on Friday. According to him parents rented the 30-year-old building near the school to shorten their children's commuting time.

The local government hasn't provided details of the identities of the dead and the causes of the two accidents are being investigated.

(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2007)