In China, rescue operations are currently underway after the gas explosion at the Nuan'erhe coal mine in Chengde that occurred early Thursday at around 3am with 85 miners working underground. According to media reports, 34 miners have been brought out of the coal mine.

Previously state-owned, the mine was auctioned to the Beijing Guodian Zhongneng Electric Fuel Investment Company for about $US7.83 million in December 2003.

Blasts at the same mine in 2002 left 29 miners dead and 11 others injured.

Meanwhile Kemerovo Region governor Aman Tuleyev has ordered comprehensive inspections of all mines in the Kuznetsk coalfields following a methane gas explosion at coking coal mine No. 12 near Kiselyovsk in the Kemerovo region of Siberia on May 18.

One miner died after being rescued and nine others were hospitalised. Rescue workers took two and a half hours to bring 131 men to the surface, including six suffering burns of various degrees.

A fact-finding commission has been dispatched to the mine to gather information related to the incident and to hand it over to law enforcement agencies.