Rescuers have retrieved 11 bodies of he missing miners in a coal mine explosion in Hegang City, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, where another 118 people were believed still trapped.

The rescue headquarters said that 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 399 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.

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.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2009)