An underground gas explosion in a coalmine has killed at least 60 workers and left 88 missing in one of China's worst mining disasters in recent memory.
The shafts of the Daping coalmine near Xinmi in central Henan province were packed with around 450 workers when disaster struck as two shifts were changing over.
The accident is yet another blow to China's beleaguered coalmining industry. China is the biggest consumer and producer of coal but appalling safety standards contribute to thousands of mining deaths each year.
Sun Huashan, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety, told a briefing in Beijing that the missing miners' chances of survival are slim.
Xinhua news agency reported that rescue work was impeded because the roof of the shafts had collapsed. Rescuers were working on resuming power supply and ventilation, eradicating poisonous gas and clearing the roof fall, it said.
The Work Safety Administration said on its website that 298 people had escaped from the mine, 18 of them with minor injuries.
