Eight people were confirmed killed yesterday in a goods yard blast in Shantou, a coastal city in south China's Guangdong Province, and six miners were trapped underground the same day after flooding at an Inner Mongolian township colliery, according to police.

Five people were killed and three injured after fire triggered an explosion at about 4 AM in Shantou as workers were loading a container truck.

The injured were rushed to hospital but died soon after. An investigation into the cause of the blast is underway.

The flooding in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region occurred at around 7 AM while ten miners were working in a vertical shaft at Qianjin Coal Mine in Yuanbaoshan District of Chifeng City.

Four of them managed to escape and work to rescue the others is ongoing.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2005)