Heavy smoke and fire engulf a pharmaceutical workshop where an explosion left at least one person dead and four others injured in Southwest China's Yunnan province, Dec 30, 2010. [Photo/yunnan.cn]

KUNMING - Five people were killed and eight others injured Thursday when a pharmaceutical workshop in southwest China's Yunnan Province exploded, local authorities said. The injured are being treated at a local hospital. Five of them were severely burned.

The blast happened at around 10 a.m. in the Guandu District of Kunming, the provincial capital.

The workshop belonged to Quanxin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Students and teachers at a high school neighboring the workshop were evacuated after the blast.

A fire triggered by the blast was extinguished.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.