Beijing: Six students from a Chinese university drowned after falling into an industrial tank during an educational visit to a mining site operated by China's state-owned gold producer, official media reported.

The students from Northeastern University fell into a flotation cell while touring a copper-molybdenum ore-dressing plant in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Wednesday, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The plant is run by a mining subsidiary of China National Gold Group Co Ltd in Hulunbuir.

All six students were retrieved from the tank but were later declared dead by medical personnel, the report said.

A teacher accompanying the group sustained injuries in the incident.