The accident occurred late Thursday at a coal mine in the city of Anshun in Guizhou province. All workers known to be in the pit were accounted for following the explosion, as 10 workers escaped to safety, Xinhua said.

But search and rescue work was continuing, Xinhua said, citing the possibility that more workers could have been in the pit when the explosion occurred than the 31 on the official work register.

The cause of the blast is under investigation.

The mine, a small colliery run by a local township government, had an annual production capacity of about 150,000 tonnes, Xinhua said.

China's vast coal mining industry is notoriously accident-prone, with about 2,600 people killed last year due mainly to lax regulation, corruption and inefficiency.

In March, a flood at the vast, unfinished Wangjialing mine in the northern province of Shanxi left 153 workers trapped underground, but more than 100 were recovered alive in a rare rescue success for the industry.

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