As of 10:35 PM Thursday, about 20 workers remained missing from a gas explosion at a road construction site in southwestern Sichuan Province, which has killed 11 people and injured 10 others.

The exact number of the missing is still unknown, said an official with the government of Dujiangyan City, where the accident happened.

All the injured are receiving treatment at the People's Hospital of Dujiangyan City and they are all out of danger, said the official, who declined to give his name.

The provincial health department has sent eight experts to the hospital for help, he said.

The accident happened at about 2:00 PM in a tunnel, from which the highway under construction between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan cities, central Sichuan, runs through.

Several coal mine rescuer teams in the province were assigned to add the rescue operation, said the official.

The China Railway Engineering Company is responsible for the highway project, and the company has sent officials to the site, he said.

Vice governor Yang Zhiwen has led a team of local safety supervision officials to the spot. Intensive investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2005)