(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-09 06:53

GUIYANG -- Twenty-nine miners have died in a coal mine gas leak in southwest China's Guizhou Province, and six others are still missing, rescuers said Thursday.

The gas leak at Qunli Coal Mine in Nayong County occurred at 2:10 pm Thursday when 86 miners were working in the shaft.

Fifty-two were rescued, but one of them died after emergency treatment, rescuers said.

Rescuers have retrieved 28 bodies from underground.

"The other six miners have slim chances of survival, but search will continue," a rescuer said.

Seven of the 52 rescued miners were injured, two severely, and they are now being treated at two nearby hospitals.

The cause of the gas leak was not immediately known.

Qunli Coal Mine is a licensed colliery with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons.

Following the accident, the provincial authorities ordered all local coal mines in the county to suspend production to root out hidden safety loopholes.

Since late August, the province has reported five coal mine gas leaks and explosions, killing a total of 20 miners, the local work safety authorities said.

China has reported 1,920 coal mine accidents from January to October, down 20.2 percent from the same period last year, and 3,069 deaths were involved, down 19 percent, latest statistics from the State Administration of Work Safety show.

But Li Yizhong, head of the administration, maintained that the situations on industrial safety remained severe as the amount of accidents were still phenomenal.

"Severe accidents still happened from time to time as some local departments were soft-handed when dealing with malpractice and closing down illegal production," Li said in a signed article released on Monday to mark the five-year anniversary of the Law of Safety Production.

He urged relevant departments to keep sober-minded and make persistent efforts and rise to the arduous task ahead.