At press time, 48 miners have been confirmed dead at the gas explosion that occurred on Wednesday in a coalmine in Guizhou Province, southwest China.
The explosion took place at 8:38 pm at the Muchonggou Mine of the Shuicheng Coalmines, with 244 people still working underground.
According to reports reaching Friday, 83 of the stranded miners have been lifted above ground, and the rest are yet to be rescued.
The State Economic and Trade Commission has sent a work team, headed by minister Sheng Huaren, to organize rescue efforts at the site.
Early Friday morning, officials from the State Council and Guizhou Province had also gone to the site to direct rescue work.
(China 09/29/2000)
