A gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China killed 33 people, in the latest disaster to strike the country's accident-prone mining industry, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. The blast occurred at 4:20 p.m. (0820 GMT) Thursday in Yangquan, a city in the northern province of Shanxi, the report said. Twenty-eight miners were killed in the explosion at the Daxian Sankeng Colliery, as were five people who descended into the pit trying to rescue them. About 40 other miners working underground at the time were able to escape, Xinhua said. The explosion comes less than two weeks after a blast in central China killed 166 miners _ the nation's deadliest mining accident in years.
