At least six people were killed as a result of illegal mining at an abandoned tungsten shaft on Tuesday, work safety authorities in east China's Jiangxi Province said on Thursday.

Police and work safety supervision officers found the bodies of six miners in the mine in Anfu County on Tuesday night.

An initial investigation showed six miners, under two organizers, were digging underground and triggered the collapse at about 10:00 PM on Tuesday, a statement from the provincial work safety supervision administration said.

The two organizers allegedly secretly moved the bodies to two nearby funeral homes and fled without reporting the accident to the authorities.

The victims were migrant workers from central Hunan Province.

Police are searching for the two organizers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2009)