SHIJIAZHUANG, May 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Rescue work is in full swing after a gas explosion at coal mine in Chengde, a city in north China's Hebei Province early Thursday, trapped 51 miners.

    The blast occurred at around 3:00 a.m. in the Nuan'erhe Coal Mine with 85 miners working underground. So far 34 have been lifted out of the coal mine.

    Located at Nanzhangzi Village in Bajia Township, the coal mine used to be a state-owned coal mine, but was auctioned to the Beijing Guodian Zhongneng Electric Fuel Investment Co. LTD. for 65million yuan (about 7.83 million US dollars) in December 2003.

    The coal mine was built with a 20 million yuan (2.41 million USdollars) investment in 1982 and put into operation in 1987 with a designed production capacity of 210,000 tons. One third of its production is coke.

    The coal mine was hit by two big gas blasts in Jan. 26 and 27 in 2002, leaving 29 miners dead and 11 others injured.

    The Hebei provincial government has decided to overhaul all coal mines across the province to improve production safety. Enditem