The recovery of the bodies leaves five workers still unaccounted for in the unfinished Wangjialing mine in Shanxi province, which flooded on March 28.

The flood had left 153 workers trapped underground, but 115 were rescued alive last week, raising hopes of finding more of the workers who were building the mine.

However, those hopes have dimmed in recent days as officials have reported levels of harmful gases were building up in the colliery, hampering rescue efforts.

Rescuers were still searching for the missing, Xinhua said, despite the risk from the gas and potential further flooding.

China's coal mines are notoriously dangerous as safety concerns are widely ignored in the rush to satisfy surging demand for the fuel -- source of about 70 percent of the country's energy.

The flood is the latest deadly accident to embarrass the government, which had responded to frequent mining disasters in recent years with a much-touted campaign to improve safety and shut dangerous mines.

More than 2,600 miners were killed in China last year, according to government figures, although labour activists say the actual numbers are probably far higher.

The Wangjialing colliery flooded after workers broke into adjacent older mines that had been filled with water, a practice used to stabilise the geology in hollowed-out, abandoned pits.

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