Seventeen miners are confirmed dead and two others injured in a fire accident caused by gas leak at a coalmine on Tuesday in north China's Shanxi Province, local coal mine safety officials said early on Wednesday.

The fire accident occurred at 11:20 AM Tuesday in a pit belonging to the Zhike Township Coal Mine, located in Zhongyang County, Lüliang, a city 240 kilometers from the provincial capital Taiyuan.

Twenty-six miners were working underground at the time. Only nine survived.

Rescuers said many of the deceased miners were burnt or choked to death. They detected little damage to the shaft and underground lanes.

A spokesperson with the local mine safety administration said the accident was a result of unauthorized production. The mine, run by the Zhike township government, had been ordered to suspend operations for safety reasons but its owners resumed operations on Monday without authorization.

Six mine executives are in local police custody and authorities have frozen the mining company's bank accounts.

Shanxi is a major coal production base. In the first seven months of this year, there were a reported 90 coalmine accidents that claimed 316 lives in total.

(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2005)