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China Coalmine Blast Toll Hits 125, Others Missing
The deathtoll from a massive explosion at a Chinese coal mine last week has risen to 125, after rescue workers, bidding to save miners still trapped below ground, found 25 more bodies, a mine official said on Wednesday.
The official said in telephone that 34 miners were still listed as missing, and that rice porridge, milk, water and soup was being fed down a long iron pipe in a bid to keep them alive.
Some 244 miners were underground when the gas explosion ripped through the Muchonggou coal mine in the southwestern province of Guizhou on September 27. Eighty-five miners were rescued and the rest were either killed or trapped in collapsed tunnels.
The mine official said rescue workers found the 25 bodies as they dug a tunnel to reach miners believed to be alive.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has written to Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to offer his condolences over the disaster.
The mine official said rescuers were in contact with trapped miners through tapping on the iron pipe.
The Guizhou Daily newspaper said an accident at the same mine in 1983 killed 84 people, but gave no further details.
The government has pledged to improve safety and close down small unregulated pits.
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