Related: Colliery blast traps about 160 miners in Heilongjiang

  

A trapped miner of Dongfeng Coal Mine is carried out by his fellow workers in Qitaihe City of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Nov. 28, 2005. (Photo: Xinhua)

QITAIHE, Heilongjiang, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- The death toll of the northeast China coal mine blast rose to 134 as of 8:00 p.m. Monday, while the rescuers are sparing no efforts in searching for the other 15 missing.

    Altogether 221 miners were working underground when the blast went off at 9:40 p.m. Sunday at Dongfeng Coal Mine run by the Qitaihe branch of the Longmei Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. in Heilongjiang province, said Zhang Chengxiang, director of the provincial coal mine safety bureau.

    A 380-member rescue team has been going all-out to search for the miners trapped beneath the coal mine shaft after the blast.

    Seventy-two miners were rescued, among whom 38 are still receiving medical treatment in local hospitals.

    Investigators said the tragedy was caused by coal-dust explosion, which knocked out all ventilation systems in the pit. The main ventilation system resumed operation Monday morning.

    The disastrous coal mine blast aroused great attention of the central government.

    Senior officials of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee and the State Council ordered relevant departments to save the trapped miners at all costs and carefully treat the injured.

    Li Yizhong, head of the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision Administration, and the major senior officials of the province are organizing the rescue operation at the accident site.

    Li urged the rescuers to quicken their search operation and asked the local government to carefully examine all the coal mines in the province so as to remove all the hidden dangers.

    The Heilongjiang provincial government held an emergent videophone conference on Monday afternoon, which ordered production safety checkup in all the mines.

    The mines which do not meet the criteria of production safety will be immediately closed down. Enditem