The death toll in a recent fire at a coal mine in central China's Hunan Province has risen to 25 workers, China Daily reported on Wednesday.
The incident occurred on Tuesday at the Lisheng Coal Mine, while 73 miners were working underground. Forty-three workers later managed to escape the shaft.
Rescuers retrieved nine bodies at a mining platform in the shaft about 160 meters (525 feet) deep on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, nine more bodies were retrieved from a depth of 540 meters (1,772 feet), China Daily reported.
Rescuers are searching another mining platform, at least 600 meters (2,000 feet) underground, hoping to find the survivors, the daily reported.
Xinhua news agency earlier reported that 18 miners were killed in the fire.
The coal industry in energy-hungry China is one of the most dangerous in the world due to poor work safety standards and intensive work schedule.
Some 7,000 lives are lost annually in accidents at coal mines in the country, and China has been trying to close small mines or merge them into larger state-owned companies to avoid frequent tragedies.
According to Xinhua, the Lisheng mine had just 180 workers and the annual output capacity of only 60,000 tons.
BEIJING, January 6 (RIA Novosti)
