MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - At least 10 miners were killed in a gas blast at a coal mine in southwest China on Friday, the country's Xinhua news agency said.
The mine explosion in Jiuqing, Sichuan Province, occurred early in the morning while 44 miners were working underground.
Only 26 miners are reported to have made it to the surface and a rescue operation has been launched to try and locate those still missing.
In a separate incident on Thursday, 27 miners died and a further six were injured in a mine explosion in northeast China.
China's mining industry is considered one of the world's most dangerous with accidents killing up to 7,000 workers annually. A major gas blast at Liaoning's Sunjiawan mine in February 2005 killed over 200 miners, making it the worst mining tragedy in China for at least 15 years.