Six people were killed and 27 injured after a gas blast at a coal mine in Sichuan Province, in southwest China, Xinhua news agency reported.
A total of 192 people worked at the Xinsheng coal mine on Sunday, when the accident occurred.
A spokesman for the rescue team said that while 186 miners managed to flee the mine after the blast, six more remained trapped. Rescuers later removed their bodies from the shaft.
The coal industry in energy-hungry China is one of the most dangerous in the world due to poor work safety standards and intensive work schedules. Some 7,000 lives are lost annually in accidents at coal mines in the country.
BEIJING, May 23 (RIA Novosti)