Eleven miners were trapped underground on Sunday after a gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in northwest China, local officials said.
Altogether 21 miners were working underground when the blast happened around noon at the Tianyu Coal Mine in rural Tongchuan in coal-rich Shaanxi province, the city government said in a statement.
So far, 10 of the miners managed to escape from the shaft but 11 are still trapped, Xinhua news agency reported.
Authorities have launched rescue operations to save the trapped miners.
China's coal mines are considered the most dangerous in the world, although the industry's safety record has improved in recent years after the government intervened to shut down small and illegal mines.
The annual death toll in Chinese coal mines are now about one-third of nearly 7,000 in 2002.