Relatives of coal miners come to the accident site to wait for further information in the Xinxing Coal Mine owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group in Hegang City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, November 21, 2009. An explosion accident occurred here at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday while 528 miners were working under the mine. Death toll has risen to 23, while 90 other miners were still missing. The rescue headquarters said that gas outburst caused the explosion. [Xinhua]

Relatives of coal miners come to the accident site to wait for further information in the Xinxing Coal Mine owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group in Hegang City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, November 21, 2009.  [Xinhua]

Thirty-seven miners have been confirmed dead in the gas outburst accident at a coal mine in Hegang City, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Saturday, while 71 were still missing.

The poor ventilation condition and the damaged communication system underground were the major obstacles hampering the rescue work, China News Service reports.

The missing workers may be trapped 500 meters underground, the report said.

Early reports quoted the rescue headquarters as saying that the gas outburst caused the explosion in the Xinxing Coal Mine owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group.

The company has updated the number of miners who escaped the accident to 415 from the previously reported 389.

It said that 528 miners were working under the mine, when the explosion occurred at around 2:30 AM Saturday.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have made instructions on the rescue work. Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang is on way to the site.

The mine is located over 400 km east of the provincial capital of Harbin. Xinhua's reporters are on the way to the accident site.

The Hegang subsidiary of Longmei is a state-owned mining company with an annual coal output of 12 million tons. Its mining area has a verified coal reserve of 3 billion tons.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2009)