Twenty-seven people have been found dead and seven remained trapped after a coal mine blast in north China's Shanxi Province, rescuers said early Saturday.
The explosion occurred in the facility of the Anxin Coal Mining Co. Ltd. in Xiaoyi City at about 11 a.m. Friday, when 58 miners were working underground, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Fifteen of them managed to escape by themselves and another nine were lifted by rescuers. All the 24 were sent to hospitals for medical check-up or treatment.
The bodies of the 27 dead were pulled out of the shaft at around 5 a.m. Saturday.
Officials from the State Administration of Work Safety are also on their way to the site.
More than 100 rescuers from Xiaoyi and other areas have been mobilized to search the trapped.
The coal company reported to local government authorities that the blasting of explosives under the main shaft caused the incident.
Shanxi's Communist Party chief Zhang Baoshun and governor Meng Xuenong have ordered all-out efforts to rescue the trapped. Meng has rushed to the site to oversee the rescue operation.