China mine explosion death toll reaches 92

By Maxim Duncan

HEGANG, China (Reuters) - The death toll from China's latest coal mine disaster reached 92 on Sunday, state television said, and hopes dimmed that more survivors would emerge after a gas blast at a colliery in the nation's far northeast.

Chinese television news said 528 workers were in the mine at Hegang in Heilongjiang province when the blast erupted in the early hours of Saturday, and 420 had been rescued by Sunday.

Some 16 miners remained trapped or unaccounted for, the evening news broadcast said.

Reporters in Hegang were taken by officials to see 20 or so rescue workers descending into a tunnel still belching smoke, preparing to scour tunnels for survivors or bodies.

Zhang Fucheng, an official in charge of rescue efforts, told Chinese television that efforts had been held up by gas and collapsed tunnels. Temperatures throughout the day were near freezing.

The blast was the latest big accident to hit the world's deadliest major coal mining industry. The explosion was so violent that nearby buildings partly collapsed.

Some of the survivors were badly injured.

"When I saw my husband, this mess of blood and flesh, I didn't recognise him at first," said Huang Guizhen, the wife of injured miner Qu Zhongliang, a Heilongjiang province news website (www.northeast.com.cn) reported.