A traffic accident has killed 12 people and left six others injured in a highway of southwest China's Yunnan Province, local government sources said Thursday.

The accident occurred at around 4:50 PM on Wednesday in Baoshan, a city of Yunnan, when a bus drove out of the highway and plunged into a 70-meter-deep valley, the government sources of Baoshan said.

Twelve people, including the driver, were killed in the accident, and six other passengers were injured and rushed to the hospital.

The cause of the accident is being further investigated, the government sources said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2005)