Two men have been executed for killing seven people, including two accomplices, with poison gas in a robbery in east China's Jiangxi Province.

The appeals of Yang Lidang and Huang Guoping were turned down by the Jiangxi Higher People's Court, which also sentenced to Li Zhensheng to death with a two-year reprieve in a final verdict. The three were sentenced to death on July 27 at the Intermediate People's Court of Jiujiang City.

The court heard that Pang Hongjian and Wu Zhousheng, each carrying two bottles of lethal hydrogen cyanide, burst into a room on the second floor of a building in Ruichang City where five people were playing cards early on June 7 last year.

Pang and Wu released the gas and died immediately along with the five card players.

Yang Lidang who was on look-out, went to investigate when his accomplices failed to return, only to faint from the effects of the gas.

Huang Guoping followed him upstairs only to find eight people lying on the floor. He called Li Zhensheng in Jiujiang to help him escape, before fleeing the scene.

Hours later, Yang Lidang regained consciousness and resumed the robbery, taking 15,950 yuan (2,000 U.S. dollars), five mobile phones and a gold necklace from the bodies before fleeing.

Police arrested Yang later that day. Two days later, Li was arrested. On Sept. 6 last year, Huang was captured in Guangdong Province.

Source: Xinhua