Beijing - The death toll from a coal mine blast in northern China has risen to 166, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, confirming one of the worst disasters to hit the world's most dangerous mining industry.
China's mines, which provide the main fuel for the world's seventh-biggest economy, have an appalling safety record underscored by a series of major accidents this year and at least four in the last few days.
"The spokesperson for the mine just declared all the 166 miners were killed," Xinhua said, confirming what authorities had been expecting in the days since Sunday's accident.
More than 120 workers escaped the state-owned Chenjiashan coal mine in Shaanxi province after the explosion, or what may have been back-to-back explosions. Many were seriously injured.
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High temperatures and a buildup of toxic gas had slowed the search for bodies at the mine where until Wednesday 65 workers had been known to have been killed, with 101 trapped and presumed dead.
Another coal mine blast killed at least 13 miners on Wednesday morning in the southwestern province of Guizhou, the State Administration of Work Safety said on its website.
Two other fatal explosions were reported over the weekend.
Sunday's blasts could be the worst since a September 2000 explosion in southwestern Guizhou province killed 162 people.
The death rate for every 100 tons of coal produced in China was 100 times that of the United States, Xinhua said on Tuesday.
Fire broke out at the Chenjiashan mine on November 22 and some miners had refused to go back to work, but officials, eager to boost production, had threatened to fine or suspend absentees, newspapers have reported.
A blast at the Chenjiashan mine in 2001 killed 38.
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