An explosion at a Xinjiang coal mine killed nine and left seven others missing yesterday evening, as twelve workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel in Guangdong were rescued. The day before, nine were killed by a gas leak at a steel plant in Beijing.

The colliery blast occurred at about 6:10 PM Thursday at Dianzhangou Zhongxing Coal Mine, about 50 kilometers south of Usu, a city in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the local government said on Friday.

Rescuers are still searching for the seven miners trapped underground.

Also on yesterday evening, 12 workers who had been trapped in a collapsed highway tunnel in Jiaoling County in northeastern Guangdong Province for 34 hours were rescued.

Earlier on Wednesday, nine people were killed by a gas leak from a pump at the steel giant Shougang Group in Beijing at around 3:40 PM, according to the State General Administration of Work Safety.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily October 28, 2005)