Rescue workers prepare to get into the coal mine to look for survivors in north China's Shanxi Province, on February 22, 2009. More than 40 miners have died after a coal mine blast occurred at about 2:00 AM on Sunday at the Tunlan Coal Mine of Shanxi Coking Coal Group in Gujiao City near Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, while rescuers are pulling out the trapped from the shaft, according to a rescuer at the site. [Xinhua]

The death toll in a coal mine gas blast on Sunday in north China's Shanxi Province has jumped to 44, while 65 others remained trapped under the mine by 1:00 PM, according to rescuers.

The accident occurred at 2:17 AM at the Tunlan Coal Mine of Shanxi Coking Coal Group in Gujiao City, about 50 km away from Taiyuan, the provincial capital, when 436 miners were working underground.

A total of 371 miners have either escaped or have been pulled out by rescuers, and among them, 44 died on the spot or in hospital, according to the rescue headquarters.

So far more than 80 rescuers are searching underground, and more have been summoned and are on the way, the rescue headquarters said.

A man in his early 20s who declined to be named is sitting beside the exit of the shaft, gazing at the busy rescuers.

"I should have been among them, had I not changed my shift with another miner," he murmured. "He is still underground. I hope he is alive."

In his team, nine miners were among the trapped, three of whom were later pulled out and rushed to hospital.

"Most of them are of my age, unmarried," he said bitterly.

A rescuer told Xinhua that some relatives of the trapped miners said they have got cell phone calls from their dear ones under the mine, which means they are alive.

Most of the miners suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, said doctors in the Xishan Hospital of Coal and Electricity in Gujiao, one of the nearest hospitals to the mine.

Zhang Baoshun, the provincial Communist Party committee chief, who is leading the rescue work at the accident site, urged to use scientific methods in rescue to prevent secondary disasters.

More than 40 ambulances have been called to the accident site.

All of the 68 hyperbaric oxygen chambers in hospitals in Taiyuan are open for admitting the injured miners.

The Shanxi Coking Coal Group is one of China's largest coking coal producers. The Tunlan Coal Mine has an annual production capacity of 5 million tonnes.

The mine enjoyed a reputation for safe operation, as no accident occurred there in the past decade.

(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2009)