SHIJIAZHUANG, Dec. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Fifty-four miners were confirmed dead and 22 remained missing in a colliery gas blast occurred in Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province on Wednesday.

    Rescuers were still searching for the trapped under the coal mine.

    A Xinhua reporter at the accident site in Liuguantun Colliery in Kaiping District of Tangshan verified that 186 miners were working underground when the blast occurred at around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

    This reporter found that 82 miners managed to escape the explosion, and 104 miners were trapped, after the blast.

    Rescuers have successfully brought 31 trapped miners out of the shaft alive, and found the bodies of 51 trapped miners. However, three of them failed emergency medical treatment, adding the total casualty to 54.

    Upon receiving the tragedy report, vice provincial governor Fu Shuangjian and leading officials with industrial safety watchdogs rushed to the spot to direct rescue operation and organize investigation in the accident.

    Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, and Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, left Beijing Wednesday evening for the site of a coalmine blast.

    The coal mine used to be a state-owned mine run by the local government with a designed production capacity of 300,000 tons per year. In 2002, it was transformed into a private mine with an annual capacity of 150,000 tons.

    It is said to be a low-gas coal mine, according to a report from the provincial administration of coal mine safety. Enditem