Seven people were killed and one injured Friday morning after a workshop ceiling collapsed in east China's Jiangsu Province, local authorities said Saturday.

The ceiling of a workshop of China International Marine Containers Group (CIMC) in Jiangsu's Nantong City fell in at around 5:50 AM, burying eight workers, said a spokesman with the municipal government.

Five people were rescued from the debris and sent to a local hospital, where four of them died. The injured was in a stable condition, he said.

The bodies of the three others were found at around 8:00 PM, the spokesman said.

Nine people were doing interior construction work in the 10-meter high workshop of CIMC, a leading container manufacturer in China, when the accident occurred. One of them managed to escape.

The municipal government and police were jointly investigating the cause of the accident, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2010)