An explosion took place in an illegally operating Chinese coal mine brought down an estimated 100 tonnes of coal, killed nine miners & five are missing. The accident at the Zhangjiazhou mine in central Hunan province happened on Wednesday evening when 17 people were working underground.

An official said that three managed to escape & rescuers in four teams were hunting round the clock for other survivors. The mine’s operating permit expired last year & it was not using gas monitoring equipment because it had broken down before the accident.

A pit collapse the same day in central Henan province killed one & trapped five miners. The number of deaths from accidents at Chinese coal mines dropped one-fifth in 2007 from the previous year, although 3,786 people still lost their lives. That was a big improvement over 2005, when the death toll was nearer to 6,000.