Eight miners were rescued from Huashan coal mine, near Panzhihua in the province of Sichuan, after the blast on Wednesday.

The accident happened only two days after up to 15 workers were killed in a gas explosion in a mine near Chongqing, also in Sichuan.

Chinese pits have an appalling safety record, with more than 5,600 workers losing their lives in accidents last year.

Shutting down

Two weeks ago, China announced plans to close 8,000 small coal mines as part of efforts to streamline and regulate the industry. It has pledged to cut mining deaths by 10%.

China's deadly industry

8,000 to close by December, 15,000 to stay open Coal provides more than 70% of China's energy State media say China's mining deaths did fall slightly last year - but mining is still Chinese industry's biggest killer

The closures will leave China with about 15,000 mines, down from 82,000 in 1997.

The official China Daily newspaper has highlighted the fact that more than $240m (two billion Yuan) - has been invested in safety equipment and safety measures at hundreds of state-owned coal mines since last year.

The government has also recently promised to invest another $700m in such facilities.

According to Zhang Baoming, head of China's Work Safety Administration, 994 people died in mining accidents between January and March this year - a 13% increase on the same period a year earlier.

And independent analysts believe the yearly death toll may be far higher than the official figures.

They say that the government's pledge to jail officials held responsible for mining accidents may actually lead to more such accidents going unreported.

Several Chinese provinces last year ordered a temporary halt to production in all coal mines, in order to allow safety inspections.

But private mine operators have frequently defied closure orders and continued to operate - or reopened - sometimes with the collusion of local officials.