Zhengzhou (China), Sep 8 (Xinhua) The toll in a coal mine explosion in central China’s Henan province Tuesday has climbed to 35 with 44 miners still trapped underground, authorities said.
The blast took place around 1 a.m. Tuesday in Pingdingshan city, said a spokesman of the Henan Provincial Bureau of Work Safety.

A total of 93 people were working in the pit when the accident happened. Fourteen miners managed to escape.

Authorities have sent five teams of 70 rescuers to take part in the search and rescue operation.

Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang arrived in Pingdingshan with a delegation.

Luo Lin, director of the state administration of work safety, led a team to Pingdingshan to oversee rescue work and investigate the accident.

At least 60 rescuers had taken turns to go down into the pit in search of the missing miners.

“The first group of rescuers began to restore the underground ventilation system,” said Zhang Jufeng, an official in charge of the city’s coalmine industry bureau.

A preliminary investigation showed illegal mining was to blame for the accident.

The colliery, which produces 150,000 tonnes of coal annually, was undergoing an overhaul and had not been allowed to resume production by the city government, said a spokesman with the Pingdingshan city committee of the Communist Party of China.

Authorities have frozen the colliery’s bank account and its owners are under police surveillance.

The Henan provincial government has ordered an immediate safety overhaul of all coal mines.