SHAODONG, Hunan, March 10 (Xinhuanet) -- By 9 p.m. on Friday, rescuers had found the remains of one more miner killed in Thursday's coal mine gas blast that led to a fire in Shaodong County, central China's Hunan Province, bringing the death toll tofour.

¡¡¡¡Five more miners remain trapped beneath the coal mine shaft, a source from the rescue headquarters said.

    The explosion occurred at a workplace of the Shuijingtou Coal Mine at 5:18 a.m. on Thursday in the Shuijingtou Coal Mine in Shaodong County, 200 km away from Changsha, the provincial capital.

    Only two miners escaped and another one was saved by rescuers later.

    Because of accumulated noxious gas after the explosion, rescuers were prevented from entering the coal mine until Friday afternoon when a fire in the shaft beneath the coal mine was brought under control, said an official in charge of the rescue operation.

    The cause of the blast is under further investigation.

    The Shuijingtou Coal Mine belongs to the state-owned Lianshao Mining Group Co. Ltd., which boasts ten pairs of shafts with a combined annual production capacity of over 1.7 million tons.

    It has an annual output capacity of 150,000 tons, but churned out 120,000 tons of coal last year. Enditem