The death toll in a coal mine explosion in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has risen to 24, rescuers said early Tuesday.

The search continues for 13 workers trapped in the Baixing coal mine in Jixi City, said Vice Mayor Xu Zhenlin.

Chances that the 13 have survived are slim. The high concentration of poisonous gas in the air and piles of stone make the rescue and recovery operations underground extremely difficult, said an expert with the rescue headquarters, who refused to give his name.

Seven 10-member rescue teams have been working in the shaft in turns. None of the bodies has been brought out of the mine because the shaft is almost blocked and the failed ventilation system has not been repaired. 

The blast occurred at 6:10 AM Monday, as 37 miners were working in the shaft about 300 meters belowground. Seven are from Sichuan Province in southwest China and the rest are local residents.

Wang Shijun, who runs the mine, has been taken into custody, a police officer said.

Liu Haisheng, vice governor of the province, and Wang Dexue, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety, rushed to the site to oversee rescue and recovery operations and supervise the investigation into the cause of the explosion.

Baixing coal mine, operated by the Jixi Mining Group, has an annual production capacity of 60,000 tons. It defied an order to halt production issued by the provincial work safety department earlier this month when some unsafe conditions were found in the mine.

Meanwhile, the confirmed death toll from a blast that ripped through an explosives factory in north China's Hebei Province rose to eight as another three bodies were found, said the local rescue headquarters Monday.

As of press time, five workers were still missing and their chances for survival were "very slim," said a rescue expert.

The only person to escape with injuries was hospitalized, according to the headquarters.

The blast occurred at an explosives factory of Xinguang Chemical Engineering Company in Yixian County at 5 PM Sunday, when 14 people were working. The three-story building collapsed in the explosion.

A deputy director of the factory took workers to inspect equipment on Sunday after some leakage of chemical materials was discovered. The workers were testing equipment when the huge explosion occurred, said a witness.

Rescue teams from the local army contingent have been searching through the rubble for the missing workers using cranes and other heavy equipment.

The company annually produces 8,000 tons of its main product, dynamite.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2004)