Fourteen workers died in a gas explosion on Sunday at a coal mine in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) website.

The blast in Shilin Town, Xingwen County, occurred when 17 miners were underground.

Rescue and recovery teams carried eight bodies out of the shaft. Nine injured miners were brought out alive and were hospitalized, but six died as a result of their injuries.

The coal mine, which has an annual capacity of 30,000 tons, belongs to the Xingwen County Yinfang Mining Co. Ltd. The owner has been arrested and 80 other mines in the county have been ordered to stop production and renovate their facilities.

At 9:40 AM on Sunday, another blast occurred at the Xinyuan Coal Mine near the city of Changning in central China's Hunan Province. One miner was confirmed dead and five were still missing as of 9:00 PM Monday, according to the provincial work safety administration.

Hopes for survival of the missing workers are slim, as gas density within the mine remains high.

Witnesses say that electricity in the mine was cut off for a period before the explosion, apparently causing gas to build up in the tunnels. It is believed that the blast took place when the workers began drilling again.

According to SAWS records, 5,286 miners died in the first 11 months of the year.

On Monday afternoon, another blast occurred in a chemical plant in Kaifeng, central China's Henan Province, killing one person and injuring eight others. The explosion touched off a blaze that took more than 100 firefighters three hours to control.

No reports were made available on the condition of the injured workers.

The cause of the blast is still under investigation.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn December 21, 2004)