Three rescuers rush to carry out their operation in Daping coal mine, 40 kilometers southwest of Zhengzhou city, capital of central China's Henan Province, in the early morning of Oct. 22, 2004. Rescuers have found another two bodies at 10:00 a.m. Friday underground the Daping coal mine, bringing the death toll in Wednesday's gas blast to 64. At press time, rescue work for the other 84 missing was continuing. (Xinhua Photo/Wang Song) Rescuers rush to carry out their operation in Daping coal mine. (Xinhua Photo/Wang Song)   (Xinhua Photo/Wang Song) Rescuers take a break. (Xinhua Photo/Wang Song) The rescue gears laid on the ground near the pithead of Daping coal mine. (Xinhua Photo/Wang Song)

Victims' bodies are moved out of the pit, at afternoon of Oct. 21, 2004.(Xinhua Photo/Wang Song)

    ZHENGZHOU, Oct. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Rescuers have found another two bodies underground the Daping coal mine in central China's Henan Province, bringing the death toll in Wednesday's gas blast to 64.

    The two bodies were found at 10:00 a.m. Friday.

    At press time, rescue work for the other 84 missing was continuing.

    Rescuers have reduced the average gas density to normal and repaired a major passageway overnight to speed up the flows of rescuers and rescue vehicles, said Li Hongshan, an official in charge of production at Daping coal mine.

    By press time, large areas of short circuits north of the passageway are yet to be repaired and two more locations still report high gas density due to ventilation failures.

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    The monitoring system at the rescue headquarters showed at 7:22a.m. Friday that communication was yet to resume at several locations in the mine. At 9:20 a.m., four trucks of cable were delivered to the mine by the Pingmei Group to replace what had been destroyed in the blast.

    The blast occurred 10:10 p.m. Wednesday when 446 miners were working in the mine of Zhengmei Group located in Xinmi.

    Two hundred and ninety-eight miners managed to escape after the blast happened, while the rest were trapped underground.

    The provincial government quickly organized the rescue operation while a 14-member working team of the State Council, headed by Secretary-General of the State Council Hua Jianmin, arrived at the mine Thursday afternoon.

    Local source said the trapped miners are mostly from Henan Province, and that the survival chance for the missing is quite slim. Enditem