A gas explosion at a Chinese coal pit has killed at least 74 miners, state media said on Thursday, notching up another statistic in a grimly predictable series in the world's deadliest mining industry. And just hours after the state news agency broke the news of the deaths in northern Hebei province, it said seven miners had been trapped in a flood at a mine in Jilin province in the northeast. One has since been rescued. Thirty-two were still missing in freezing temperatures at the Liuguantun colliery in Tangshan, 180 km (108 miles) east of Beijing in Hebei, after Wednesday's blast. Xinhua news agency said initially that 186 miners had been working in the pit at the time but later revised the figure to 106. The State Administration of Work Safety put the number in the pit at 123.
