Police have detained 11 people for allegedly covering up a coal mine accident that left six people dead in Shanxi Province, the local government announced on Saturday.

They included Yang Sanjun, owner of the Caowuhao Coal Mine in Hongtong County, and its mining and production directors, said a report issued by the county government.

The county discipline inspection and supervision authorities were also investigating five work safety supervisors stationed at the colliery.

Six miners suffocated in the shaft of the mine on September 23, 2008, after explosives were mishandled and detonated, burning up oxygen, the government said in a report based on a 10-month police investigation.

Managers of the privately owned mine secretly removed the bodies on the day of the accident, without reporting it to the authorities, the report said.

Public tip-offs prompted the police to investigate in October last year and helped them to find key clues earlier this month.

The bank accounts of the mine were frozen.

The mine has valid license and reported an annual output of 210,000 tonnes of coal.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2009)