Fourteen people were killed in a colliery dormitory explosion in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region yesterday, and the death toll from Sunday's gypsum mine cave-in in Hebei Province, where four are still missing, has risen to 31.

The explosion took place at 1 AM on Tuesday in the workers' dormitory of Beitashan Coal Mine in Qitai County, about 150 kilometers east of Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang.

Another two people were seriously injured in the accident.

According to local authorities, one of the workers, violating safety production rules, had taken detonators and explosives into the building.

Of those confirmed dead by yesterday evening from the cave-in at Kangli Gypsum Mine in Hebei, 14 were miners and 17 their family members.

The accident, which happened in Shangwang Village of Huining Township in Xingtai City on Sunday evening, affected neighboring mines and workers' residential buildings and injured another 33 people.

(China Daily, China.org.cn November 9, 2005)