Seventeen miners, who were trapped after a blast in a coal mine in China's Xinjiang province, have died, rescuers said today.
The explosion took place on Saturday when 20 people were working inside a pit mined by Dahuangshan Yuxin Coal Mining Co. Ltd, 120 km from the regional capital of Urumqi.
While three of them were rescued, the others were trapped underground, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The company is owned by the sixth agriculture division of the Xinjiang Construction Corps, a paramilitary organisation.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, the report said.
