Accidents killed nine people in different parts of China on Thursday, according to local authorities.

The underground cables at a coal mine in north China's Hebei Province caught fire at 8 AM and left six miners dead, a spokesman with the provincial work safety administration said.

The fire has been put out and the bodies of the six victims have been lifted to ground level, the spokesman said, while givingno explanations as to the cause of the accident.

The coal mine, called Changshan, is located at the Kang'ercheng Township of southern Hebei's Wu'an City. It had been suspended from operation before the accident.

In another development, a traffic accident killed three people in southwestern Chongqing Municipality.

The accident took place at 6 AM in the city's Wanzhou District when a truck bumped into a mini-van, killing three people aboard the mini-van and seriously injuring one other, a spokesman with the Wanzhou district government said.

The injured passenger was rushed to the local hospital and the truck driver has been taken into custody, the spokesman said.

The cause of the accident is being investigated.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2006)