Eight people were confirmed dead and one injured in a landslide on Thursday in Wuning County, east China's Jiangxi Province.

 

Wuning county government officials said the landslide occurred at around 10:20 AM when a huge block of mud broke off a hill, fell on a highway construction site and destroyed a work shed inside which nine workers were on a break.

 

The workers were buried and emergency workers rushed to dig them out. Seven of them died at the scene and one died on the way to hospital. The other one is out of danger but still receiving medical treatment in hospital.

 

According to local work safety officials, the cause of the accident was a combination of the explosions used in construction and continuous rainfall.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2007)