At least five persons were killed and four injured in a chemical plant explosion in Xingyi in South West China's Guizhou Province on Thursday morning.

The China Daily and the Xinhua news agency reported that the accident took place at about 9 a.m. at the plant located in the Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Qianxinan.

Chen Gang, director of the prefecture government's emergency response office, was quoted as saying: "The explosion occurred when workers were repairing chemical material pipelines."

The injured have been admitted to a hospital.

"We are investigating the cause of the accident," Gang added. (ANI)