Death toll from central China's coal mine gas outburst rose to 13 as the last victim's body was found on Saturday morning, rescuers said.

The last missing miner's body was found at 2:00 AM on Saturday after another miner named Yan Jinhua was rescued early Friday morning from the blast site at the Zhangjiazhou coal mine in Yongxing county of Chenzhou City in central China's Hunan Province on Wednesday, said Li Huajun, deputy head of Yongxing county government at the site.

The accident occurred at about 6:30 PM last Wednesday when 17 miners were working underground. Three managed to escape and nine bodies were found later in the same day, rescuers said.

A number of officials, including the deputy governor of Hunan and chief of the provincial work safety watchdog, were supervising the rescue operation at the site.

The colliery, with legal business licenses, was being merged with other mines under the local government's plan to reform the mining industry.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2008)