By 1 p.m. on Sunday, 123 miners were rescued alive after a major gas explosion took place at the Chenjiashan Coalmine, Shaanxi Province, around 7:10 a.m., but another 170 remained trapped underground.

Latest information from the Chenjiashan Coalmine, a state-owned venture under the jurisdiction of the Tongchuan Mining Administration, confirmed that there were 293 miners working underground when the gas explosion happened at coal pits some 8,000 meters away from the ground entrance.

Those who escaped the gas explosion were mainly workers working near the entrance. Some of them were poisoned by carbon monoxide, said the information.

Main provincial Party and government leaders, including Li Jianguo, secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Chen Deming, acting governor of Shaanxi, have all rushed to the site of the accident to organize the rescue operation.

The Chenjiashan Coalmine is capable of producing 1.3 million tons of coal a year.

Cause of the accident is under investigation. 

(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2004)