Gas explosion kills 31, traps 128 coal miners in north-east China

A gas explosion tore through a coal mine in northern China on Saturday, killing 11 people and trapping another 128, central government

authorities said.

Another 389 people at the Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang province managed to escape after the 2:30 a.m. explosion, the State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement.

A man answering the phone at the mine said an unknown number of people were injured in the blast. He did not want to give his name, as is common among Chinese officials.

The mine is run by one of China's top 520 state-owned enterprises, according to the Web site of its owner, the Hegang branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Holding Mining Group. The site says the Hegang branch has more than 88,000 employees.

China's mines are the world's deadliest, with unregulated operations accounting for almost 80 percent of the country's 16,000 mines.

The closing of many small, dangerous mines halved the average number of miners killed to about six a day in the first half of this year, the government has said.

Most accidents are blamed on failures to follow safety rules, including a lack of required ventilation or fire control equipment.

A blast at the Tunlan coal mine in northern China's Shanxi province killed 77 people in February, China's worst industrial accident in a year.