A total of 33 people have died in a coalmine gas blast in central China's Henan Province Thursday, according to local sources.

Another six people injured in the blast, including two severely injured, have been hospitalized.

The explosion occurred at the Xinsheng Coal Mine in Liangwa, Lushan County at about 12:20 on Thursday afternoon. Right after the accident, the local government sent rescue workers in.

As of early this morning, 14 teams had been sent down into the mine to search for possible survivors, according to Zhang Jufeng, director of the local coalmine bureau and in charge of rescue work. But he added that gas density in the mine is still at a high level.

The same day, central government vowed to take tough measures to improve safety in coalmines this winter.

State Councilor Hua Jianmin said at a meeting on coal mine safety held in Beijing Thursday that to ensure work safety in coal mine industry is significant to the country's macro-economic development. The industry should take safety and human-life in prior agenda.

The accident prevention work should be concentrated on gas explosion prevention, and relevant departments should carefully investigate production beyond the ventilation capability in mines and list out those high-risk coal mines for tighter supervision, Hua said.

In the first eight months this year, the death toll of coal mine accidents hit 3,457, according to the State Administration of Work Safety.

Last month, a deadly gas explosion at the Daping Coal Mine in central China's Henan Province took 147 miner' lives.

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2004)