URUMQI, Dec. 13 -- Twenty-two people were trapped in a coal mine following a gas explosion in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region early Friday, local authorities said.

The explosion occurred at about 1:26 a.m. at the Baiyanggou coal mine in Hutubi county, the Hui Autonomous Prefecture of Changji, when 34 miners were working underground, the prefecture government said.

Twelve workers managed to escape themselves.