Four people were killed and another two poisoned in an open cesspool in the suburbs of Kuytun City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, early Saturday.

Yu Xinquan, a police officer with the public security and fire control detachment of Kuytun, said they rushed to the site of the accident after they received a report about the mishap around 7:49 AM.

They rescued six people from the cesspool located near the experimental station of No. 131 Regiment of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps' 7th Division.

All the six people, consisting of one teenager, three adult men and a middle-aged woman, who might accidentally fall into the open cesspool, and one armed policeman with a hemp rope around his waist, who obviously attempted to save the previous five victims, were later sent to the local hospital.

The cesspool cover is left not far away from the cesspool. "There is a high concentration of marsh gas in the cesspool, and the air around it is full of pungent flavor," said Yu.

The three adult men and the woman were later proclaimed dead in the hospital, while the armed policeman and the teenager still remain in coma.

Cause of the accident is under investigation.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2005)