 Thousands of miners died in blasts in China last year |
State media in China has said the death toll from a gas explosion in a mine on Saturday has risen to 59. Another 10 miners are trapped underground, with some of them possibly still alive.
Officials say police have detained the four owners of the mine in the northern province of Shanxi.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua says the licensed mine had been ordered to suspend production after safety problems last November.
But the owners had defied the order and resumed work.
The blast occurred on Saturday at the Xishui coal mine in Shuozhou and rocked nearby Kangjiayao coal mine.
Chinese leaders President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have "demanded relevant departments try their best to save the trapped and instructed rescuers to pay attention to their own safety", Xinhua said.
Xishui was established in 1993 and has an annual output of 150,000 tons.
This latest blast brings to more than 100 the number of people killed in explosions in Chinese mines over the last week.
Deadly record
Last week, the Chinese government set up a new department to try to reduce the high number of deaths in the industry.
China's coal mines are said to be the world's deadliest.
Official estimates put last year's total number of fatalities at 6,000 - although independent surveys say the figure could be three times that.
As the demand for energy has increased in China, suppliers have been pressured to provide coal faster, leading to a dramatic increase in accidents, says the BBC's Tony Cheng in Beijing.
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