At least 123 people were missing after a blast on Wednesday afternoon at a coal mine in northern Hebei province, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. Twenty-seven miners escaped the explosion in Tangshan City, the report added, but no further details were immediately available. China has the world's biggest and deadliest mining industry. At least 2,700 miners have died in blasts, flooding collapses and other accidents in the first half of 2005 alone.
