Derailed China train destroys houses, kills six

BEIJING (Reuters) - A 17-car cargo train came off the tracks in southwest China on Monday, destroying several houses and burying six people, Xinhua news agency said.

The accident happened at around dawn in Qujing in the mountainous province of Yunnan.

Witnesses were quoted as saying the train lost control on the line linking Yunnan's provincial capital, Kunming, with Guiyang in neighboring Guizhou province.

"Several cars broke off and derailed along the way," the agency said. It did not give a cause for the crash amid cold and snowy weather which has hit wast swathes of south and east China in recent weeks.

A high-speed train ran through a group of maintenance workers in the dark last month in the eastern province of Shandong, killing 18 in China's worst railway accident in years.

(Reporting by Nick Macfie; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)