Six people were killed and two injured after a gas blast ripped through a colliery in southwest China's Guizhou Province Friday, according to the local work safety regulator.

The gas explosion struck Tianwan Coal Mine at 11:20 a.m., when eight miners were working underground, the provincial work safety supervision administration said.

Six were pronounced dead at the scene. The injured were hospitalized.

The privately-owned colliery, in Guiding County of Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, about 100 kilometers southeast of Guiyang, the provincial capital, was undergoing technological improvement when the accident took place.

The colliery has a designed annual production capacity of 90,000 tonnes.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2009)