BEIJING
The death toll for a gas explosion at a coal mine in China's southwestern Guizhou province has raised to 13 after the bodies of three people previously reported missing were recovered, according to state media Friday.
Five other miners had been injured after the blast took place at around 7.50 p.m. (1150GMT) Tuesday in Louxia township, Pu'an County.
Xinhua reported that a total of 56 people had been safely removed from the mine.
An investigation into the cause of the accident remains ongoing.
China -- the world’s biggest consumer -- produces more than one-third of annual global coal output but accounts for more than two-thirds of mining deaths around the world annually, Mining Technology reported last year.
Last December, a gas explosion at a coal mine in northeastern Heilongjiang province left 10 miners dead, just weeks after fires at two mines left dozens of workers dead in Liaoning and southwestern Guizhou province in two days.
Lax regulation and poor operating procedures make China’s mines the deadliest in the world.
