NANJING - 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 a.m., 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 p.m., 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.