GUIYANG - Five police officers in southwest China's Guizhou Province died while on duty Thursday as their car plunged off a 100-meter-deep cliff, local authorities said.

The accident occurred at about 3 p.m. when the five from a township police station in Zunyi county was driving on a local mountainous road, said the county publicity department in a statement.

Four police officers were killed at the scene and the other died from severe injuries while en route to hospital.

An investigation into the cause of the accident is under way.