The death toll from China's latest major coal mine disaster rose to 105 yesterday, official media said, as hopes for survivors ebbed in a tragedy compounded by bungled rescue efforts.
Twenty-six more bodies were recovered yesterday morning following a gas explosion at the mine in northern China's Shanxi Province, Xinhua news agency said.
At least 120 workers were in the Ruizhiyuan mine at the time of the accident on Wednesday night, although the exact number is not known, Xinhua said, citing the local rescue headquarters.
Fifteen people have been rescued or managed to escape, it said.
The State Administration of Mine Safety said it remained unclear how many were still missing.
"We still don't know the exact numbers who are trapped. We are trying to clarify that," administration spokeswoman An Yuanjie (
But she said any who remained underground were likely to be dead.
"The chances of them surviving are very small because it was a gas explosion," she said.
Local residents contacted by Agence-France Presse by telephone described nearby communities -- home to many of the mine's workers -- as grief-stricken, and said many angry relatives had rushed to the colliery seeking news.
"We are all full of sorrow," said a male resident of Hongguang village, where the mine is located.
"It was a big mine and many of the miners were from here," he said, declining to give his name.
Official media blamed the mine's managers, saying they allowed mining in an unauthorized area of the site to extract more coal than their license allowed.
Compounding their mistakes, they allegedly failed to report the accident for more than five hours while sending in their own rescue teams, which were not properly trained, wasting precious time.
"They sent rescue teams down the shaft but they were not professional rescue teams ... this made the accident even worse," An said.
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