Owners of the mine in Fanshi county, Shanxi province, later tried to cover up the blast - caused by tonnes of explosives stored in the pit - by secretly removing bodies under cover of night.

An official in Fanshi county confirmed the accident at the mine. An official at the National Work Safety Bureau in Beijing said officials had been sent to the scene.

"An investigation is going on, but for now we have no figures available about the accident," he said.

The report said the blast happened on June 22, just two days after an explosion at a coal mine in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang killed 115 people.

The toll in that accident highlighted the appalling safety record of China's massive mining industry, which sees almost 10,000 deaths a year.

The Huashang Bao, which is based in Xian, the capital of the neighbouring province of Shaanxi.Citing miner Hu Jiang, who lost three relatives in the blast, the paper said 117 miners were underground when a fire broke out because of an electrical fault.

Miners suggested they should evacuate but were ordered to continue work. More than an hour later, 3.6 tonnes of explosives stored underground ignited.

The mine's owner and his brother later ordered the secret removal of bodies, Hu told the newspaper, saying many were removed on a truck in the middle of the night.

The newspaper's reporter said that when he arrived in Fanshi county he was followed by a series of unidentified cars and stopped by security guards when he attempted to enter a hotel housing survivors and victims' relatives.

The journalist only managed to talk to Hu Jiang and another miner who escaped the blast after they managed to escape from the hotel.

Chinese authorities have waged a series of high-profile campaigns to close unsafe mines and thousands of such mines are shut every year, but many simply reopen once the inspectors leave with the connivance of local officials.

(China Daily June 28, 2002)