Twenty-nine miners have died in a coal mine gas leak in southwest China's Guizhou Province, and six others are still missing, rescuers said on Thursday.

The gas leak at Qunli Coal Mine in Nayong County occurred at 2:10 PM on Thursday while 86 miners were working in the shaft.

Fifty-two were rescued, but one of them died after emergency treatment, rescuers said.

Rescuers have retrieved 28 bodies from underground.

"The other six miners have very slim chances of survival, but the search will continue," a rescuer said.

Seven of the 52 rescued miners were injured, two severely, and they are now being treated at two nearby hospitals.

The cause of the gas leak was not immediately known.

The Qunli Coal Mine is a licensed colliery with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons.

Following the accident, the provincial authorities ordered all local coal mines in the county to suspend production in order to root out hidden safety loopholes.

Since late August, the province has reported five coal mine gas leaks and explosions, killing a total of 20 miners, the local work safety authorities said.

China has reported 1,920 coal mine accidents from January to October, down 20.2 percent from the same period last year. A total of 3,069 deaths were involved, down 19 percent, according to the latest statistics from the State Administration of Work Safety.

But Li Yizhong, head of the administration, maintained that the situations focused on industrial safety remained harsh as the amount of accidents were still phenomenal.

"Brutal accidents still happen from time to time because some local departments have acted gently when dealing with malpractice and closing down illegal production," Li said in a signed article released on Monday to mark the five-year anniversary of the Law of Safety Production.

He urged all appropriate departments to remain sober-minded and make persistent efforts to rise to the arduous task ahead.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2007)