Rescuers found 26 additional bodies in the shaft of the Xinyao Coal Mine on Friday morning, bringing the death toll to 105, following a gas explosion in the mine in Shanxi Province on Wednesday.

The explosion happened at 11:15 PM Wednesday inside the Xinyao Coal Mine, a village-run coal mining venture in Hongtong County, Linfen.

Exact figures for the number of staff in the mine at the time of the accident were still being established. Rescue officials on Friday said that at least 120 miners, instead of the previously reported 111, were inside the shaft when the accident took place.

The latest information on survivors was that 15 workers either escaped or were rescued later.

The official cause of the accident has yet to be confirmed but preliminary investigations cite a coal dust explosion as the root cause of Wednesday's coal mine tragedy, according to Xu Zhancheng, engineer-in-chief with the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Coal Mine Safety.

More than 150 rescuers are participating in the rescue operation. They have finished the rescue operation at the No. 2 coal seam, and are carrying out rescue efforts at the No. 9 coal seam. The vertical distance between the two coal seams is 30 meters.

"Xinyao is a low-gas coal mining pit," said Xu, "I think the explosion first happened at the coal seam No. 9 and later spread, affecting coal seam No. 2."

There was a delay of about six hours in reporting the explosion to the local authorities, who were not contacted until 5:00 AM Thursday. The authorities said they believed the colliery managers delayed reporting the accident while they tried to begin their own rescue operations, which meant that crucial time passed and casualties probably increased as a result.

Xinyao, owned by Ruizhiyuan Mining Co., held full, valid licenses at the time of the accident that allowed it to produce 210,000 tons of coal annually.

Rescue and recovery work was continuing on Friday morning and officials were seeking to identify the dead.

The density of carbon monoxide with the No. 9 coal seam is said to have hindered access, further thwarting the rescue efforts. The rescue headquarters have worked out compulsory measures for ventilation to guarantee safety of the rescuers while the rescue operation continues.

Authorities including Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, Zhao Tiechui, chief of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, and Zhang Baoshun, Party secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on Thursday rushed to the site of the accident. They called for "all-out efforts" be made to save those trapped inside the shaft.

People gather to wait for the news of miners trapped underground.

Rescuers prepare to search for the victims.

Rescuers prepare to search for the victims.

A miner receives treatment after being resued.

A mother holding her child grieves as she waits for the news of her loved one trapped underground.

(Xinhua News Agency, December 7, 2007)