(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-11 14:01

GUILIN, Guangxi  -- Six migrant workers were confirmed dead in a landslide in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Friday, the local government said.

The landslide and a subsequent mud flood, which occurred at around 8 p.m. in the mountainous Guali village of Ziyuan County, buried the temporary lodging of six workers from the eastern Jiangxi Province, the county government said at an emergency meeting on workplace safety.

A local woman narrowly escaped the accident by climbing out of the debris and crawling 500 meters downhill to seek help.

Tang Xianglian, a villager in Guali, said she was embroidering in her room after she had cooked for the six migrants. "I heard a bang and saw a rock breaking through the ceiling," she recalled later in hospital.

The rock hit Tang on the head and she passed out. When she woke up again, she struggled to get out of the debris, only to find the lodging had collapsed and the six workers were nowhere to be seen.

As the area was largely uninhabited, Tang had to crawl about 500 meters down the hill to the nearest help within reach -- the foreman's home.

Rescuers searched for the workers overnight, and all the six were found dead by 3 a.m. on Saturday.

Tang was hospitalized with injuries in the head and chest.

Ziyuan county is located in the remote mountainous regions in the northeast of Guangxi, about 98 kilometers from the scenic city of Guilin.

Local land and geological departments believe the landslide to be a geological disaster.