Death toll hits 90 in North China colliery blast
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-12-10 13:23

The death toll in Wednesday's colliery blast in Tangshan has climbed to 90 and 18 others are still missing, rescuers said.

The Chinese central government set up an investigation team on Saturday to see into the accident and oversee the rescue work, a spokesman with the emergency rescue headquarters told Xinhua.

The deadly blast went off at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Liuguantun Colliery in Kaiping district of Tangshan, a city in north China's Hebei Province. Twenty-nine of the trapped miners have been saved, five of whom are seriously injured.

More than 150 rescuers are working all-out in search of the missing miners.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice-Premier Huang Ju and State Councilor Hua Jianmin have given separate instructions demanding every effort to save the trapped miners.

Earlier reports said 186 miners were working underground when the blast occurred but a source with the state investigation team said the number was inaccurate -- as he found 10 miners did not go down the shaft after signing on the roll book.

The coal mine, formerly state-owned, was privatized in 2002.