Twenty-one miners are dead and nine are missing after fire broke out on Tuesday at the Ertang coal mine in Nanning city, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Five miners survived the accident which occurred about 4:00 am on Tuesday. Rescuers were searching for the missing miners, according to Lin Guoqiang, mayor of Nanning city.
Initial investigations shows when the 35 miners were working underground at the No.4 mining zone, an electricity transformer suddenly caught fire, setting alight wooden pillars. The area where the miners were working quickly filled with poisonous gas.
Latest reports said the search was continuing for the nine missing people.
(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2002)
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