Xinhua News Agency reported today that, according to local safety supervision authorities, a gas explosion involving two neighboring collieries killed 17 people in north China's Shanxi Province on Monday.

The blast took place at 4:50 PM at Fenhemao Coal Mine in Lianggou Township, Yuanping City in the prefecture of Xinzhou, killing all 13 miners working underground at the time.

The mine's management sent a team of six rescuers down the pit, but two of them suffocated to death.

Another two miners in the adjacent Xiaosangou Coal Mine were also killed because the two collieries share one tunnel.

Fenhemao, a village-run mine, reports an annual output of 30,000 tons. It holds safety certificates but its business and production permits have both expired, said officials from the provincial coal mine safety supervision bureau.

Yu Youjun, Shanxi's acting governor, has urged the bureau and the city government to continue rescue efforts, pinpoint the cause of the accident and compensate victims' families in time and in full.

Rescuers carry the body of a dead miner in Yuanping City.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2005)