Four people were confirmed dead and another 16 injured in a road accident that occurred Thursday morning in Wenchuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, local traffic police said on Thursday afternoon.

At around 9:30 AM on Thursday, a loaded tourist bus was hit suddenly by rocks falling from the roadside mountain at Yanmen Township of Wenchuan County, Aba Tibet and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, when it parked at a hawker's stand on its route from Chengdu, the provincial capital, to Jiuzhaigou, a UNESCO natural heritage site in Sichuan.

The accident killed four people, and injured 16 others. Of the wounded, four are in serious condition, the police said.

Cause of the accident is being investigated.

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2006)