KUNMING - An overloaded van taking 12 students home plunged into a 60-meter deep valley in southwest China on Saturday, killing six people and injuring eight others, local officials reported.

The eight-seater, loaded with 14 people, rolled into the valley from a mountainous road in the county of Guangnan, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao prefecture of Yunnan province at about 9 am, prefecture officials said. The fatality includes the driver, four students, and an elderly man.

The injured, all students from a local school, have been hospitalized, while police have launched an investigation into the case, local officials said.