At least 12 workers who were building an underground parking lot in northeastern China were killed when a concrete ceiling collapsed onto them, local authorities and state media said Sunday.

The fallen ceiling buried 17 workers in the port city of Dalian on Saturday. Four of these managed to get out and were rushed to hospital, and their injuries were not life-threatening, the official Xinhua news agency said.

One other person remains missing, it added. The cause of the accident is currently being investigated, the report said, without providing further details.

An employee at the Dalian work safety bureau confirmed the accident to AFP, but refused to provide details. Local police refused to comment, and the government was not immediately available for comment.

China has a dismal work safety record. Last week, 12 workers were killed at a steel plant in the eastern city of Nanjing when molten iron spilled from a furnace.

A day earlier, at least 13 people were killed in an explosion in a coal mine in the southwestern province of Guizhou.