A total of 33 people have died in a coalmine gas blast in central China's Henan Province Thursday, according to local sources.

Another six people injured in the blast, including two severely injured, have been hospitalized.

The explosion occurred at the Xinsheng Coal Mine in Liangwa, Lushan County at about 12:20 on Thursday afternoon. Right after the accident, the local government sent rescue workers in.

As of early this morning, 14 teams had been sent down into the mine to search for possible survivors, according to Zhang Jufeng, director of the local coalmine bureau and in charge of rescue work. But he added that gas density in the mine is still at a high level.

The same day, central government vowed to take tough measures to improve safety in coalmines this winter.

At a meeting in Beijing, State Councilor Hua Jianmin said that ensuring safety is important for the country's macroeconomic development and that the industry should regard safety and human life as a priority.

Hua said that accident prevention work should concentrate on gas explosion prevention, and relevant departments should carefully investigate production beyond ventilation capabilities and identify high-risk mines for tight supervision.

In the first eight months of this year, the death toll from coalmine accidents reached 3,457, according to the State Administration of Work Safety.

Last month, another gas explosion at Daping, also in Henan, took 141 lives.

(Xinhua News Agency, China News Service November 12, 2004)