Toxic gas killed 13 workers in a coal mine in northern China early Wednesday, the government said, in the latest accident to strike the nation's disaster-prone mining industry. Elsewhere, rescuers were searching for 36 miners missing for more than a week in a flooded coal mine in southern China. The deaths Wednesday occurred at a township mine in Xiangning county in Shanxi province, a major coal-producing region, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The 13 miners were sent down to close off a passageway leading to an adjacent mine, and they were later found dead, Xinhua said. It said a 14th miner survived and was being treated for injuries. "All the casualties were caused by leakage of poisonous gas," the report said. At the mine in the southern province of Guizhou, rescuers who were looking for the miners missing since Dec. 12 were using water pumps to drain flooded areas, Xinhua said.
