Death toll climbs in China mine blast

The death toll from a colliery gas explosion in the early hours of Monday in southwest China's Yunnan Province has climbed to 14, the local government said. The accident happened at around 12:30 a.m. in a pit of Hongtutian Coal Mine in Fuyuan County in Qujing City, the county government said in a press release. The 14 victims were among 56 people working in the pit. The other 42 escaped without injuries, it said. Rescuers had retrieved 13 dead bodies as of 8 a.m., and the last one was found at around 1:20 p.m. The cause of the accident is still under investigation. The county government said Hongtutian is a private mine and is properly licensed. Qujing is a major coal production base in the east of Yunnan Province. A mine flood on April 7 trapped 22 miners in the pit of a colliery in Qujing's outer Qilin District. As of Saturday, 21 were confirmed to have died.