BEIJING: Forty-four workers were confirmed dead and dozens were trapped underground after a powerful gas blast early Sunday in a northern China coalmine, state media reported.
The accident occurred at about 2:00 am (1800 GMT Saturday) at a mine in Gujiao city near the Shanxi provincial capital of Taiyuan, when a total of 436 miners were at work underground, Xinhua news agency said.
The agency earlier reported that 96 were trapped underground. The preliminary death toll of 44 makes this the worst accident reported in China's disaster-prone mining industry in several months.
The mine, which has an annual capacity of five million tonnes, is operated by the Shanxi Jiaomei Group, according to the agency. Zhang Baoshun, the head of the Communist party in Shanxi, told rescuers to take care and avoid getting hurt in the dangerous work of searching for survivors.
More than 3,000 people died in Chinese coal mines in 2008, according to earlier reports in the state media. However, independent monitors say the real figure is much higher.
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