Six people were gassed to death and another 28 were sickened when sulfureted hydrogen leaked at a chemical plant in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Thursday, the local government said.

The accident occurred at Qitian Fertilizer Plant in Anning, about 10 kilometers from the provincial capital Kunming, at 7:40 pm, a spokesman with the Kunming city government said.

He said the 28 sickened were still in hospital Friday morning.

Local safety authorities capped the gas leak shortly after the accident, and an assessment by the environment watchdog suggested no damage had been done, he said.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Sulfureted hydrogen, which smells of rotten eggs, killed 243 people in the December 2003 leakage in a well near Kaixian county of Chongqing Municipality.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2008)