At time of writing, rescuers were still working in Lijiang to rescue 23 workers after an explosion at the Yongxing mine. Three had already been hospitalised while the condition of the trapped miners is still unknown.

Twenty-six miners were working at the Jizuo coal mine in Huaping country in Yunnan province Wednesday when the blast occurred, Xinhua said. The agency reported three were rescued immediately, while six were still missing.

The cause of the gas explosion is currently being investigated.

The blasts follow the Luling coal explosion that killed 86 miners in east China's Anhui Province on May 13. Chinese officials announced last week poor ventilation was the cause of the explosion.

State Administration of Work Safety director Wang Xianzheng said the failure to extract gas and operating errors were responsible for the explosion.

Preliminary analysis by a group of experts sent by the central government indicated workers failed to turn off a switch for electric-powered machines as required when repairing the switch. Sparks from the move were believed to have ignited the gas.

This year up until May, 921 people have been killed in various accidents in China. More than a third of people killed were a result of mining accidents, mainly caused by gas explosions.

China Daily reported Huang Yi, on behalf of the work safety office, said the tragedy could have been avoided if work safety measures had been fully implemented.

Only last year a similar incident happened at the same mine where 13 lives were claimed.

Chinese authority response to mine accidents has yet to yield any satisfactory results with the country’s dismal track record continuing on a downward spiral.