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At least 44 miners have been killed and 96 remain trapped after a gas explosion in a coal mine in China's Shanxi province, the state Xinhua news agency reports.
The accident happened at Shanxi Jiaomei Group's Dunlan mine in Gujiao City near the provincial capital of Taiyuan at 2 am on Sunday [18:00 GMT Saturday].
Xinhua said 436 miners were working underground at the time of the blast, with 114 taken to hospital and 24 seriously injured.
There are no details available as yet about the fate of the missing miners but the preliminary death toll of 44 makes this mining incident China's worst for several months.
Although China has attempted to reduce mine accidents by closing more than a 1,000 small, dangerous mines last year, the country's mining industry is still the world's deadliest.
In 2008 coal mine accidents claimed about 3,200 lives in China, a 15 per cent improvement on the previous year.
However, observers allege that China's mining deaths figures are revised downwards and claim many more people die in mine accidents.
The Shanxi Jiaomei Group is China's largest producer of coking coal and operates 28 mines.
PHOTO CAPTION
China map locating Shanxi province
Al-Jazeera
