Horror coal mine gas explosion in China kills eight as more remain trapped underground

A gas explosion at a coal mine in China has claimed the lives of at least eight people and left 38 workers trapped underground, according to reports from state media on Saturday.

The incident at the Liushenyu coal mine in Changzhi city, situated in the northern province of Shanxi, occurred on Friday evening, state news agency Xinhua reported, noting that approximately 247 workers were underground at the time.

By the early hours of Saturday, 201 had been brought safely to the surface.

The cause of the blast remains under investigation, Xinhua confirmed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded an all-out effort to rescue the missing and called for a thorough investigation into the cause of the disaster, with those found responsible to be held accountable, according to Xinhua.

Shanxi province is widely regarded as China’s foremost coal mining region. Larger in size than Greece and home to a population of around 34 million, the province’s hundreds of thousands of miners extracted 1.3 billion tons (1.17 billion metric tons) of coal last year, accounting for almost a third of China’s total output.