Ten people were killed and another 10 were injured in a gas explosion Wednesday at the Qiaoyan Coal Mine in Yiyang County, Henan Province.

The blast occurred around 9:00 AM Wednesday as 24 miners were working underground in the privately owned mine in central China. Nine died instantly and another, who managed to escape, died later at a local hospital, according to Zhang Huimin, deputy head of the Yiyang County government.

Ten others were injured and are being treated in four local hospitals.

Earlier reports indicated that only seven had died and eight injured.

All those killed were local farmers who were working temporarily in the mine, which had continued to operate despite the county's mandatory suspension of coal production.

The cause of the blast is under investigation.

Chui Genzhu, the legal representative of the mine, reportedly fled after the accident.

The China News Service, citing the Henan provincial government office that maintains records on mining, reports that 117 mining accidents occurred in Henan in 2004, killing 380.

The province produced about 150 million tons of coal last year, with a fatality rate per million tons of 2.1. The nationwide average is just under four per million tons produced.

The average Chinese miner produces 321 tons of coal per year, just 2.2 percent of a US miner's output. But the fatality rate was 100 times that of the United States, according to Professor Wang Deming of the China University of Mining and Technology.

(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2005)