Police have detained 33 people after this week's mine blast which killed at least 105 people in Shanxi Province.

The 33 are alleged to be responsible for the massive gas explosion that ripped through the village-run Xinyao Coal Mine at 11:15pm on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Public Security yesterday issued a class-B arrest warrant for the owner and manager of the mine, in Hongtong County, Linfen City.

State broadcaster CCTV named the mine owner as Wang Hongliang and its manager as Guo Jianmin. It said the mine's bank accounts have been frozen.

Rescuers found 26 more bodies in a mine shaft yesterday morning, but the exact number of workers in the mine at the time of the blast was still being investigated.

Officials said yesterday that at least 120 miners, instead of the previously reported 111, were in the mine when it blew up.

The latest information on survivors was that 15 workers either escaped or were rescued later.

Rescue work, including pumping deadly carbon monoxide from a shaft, is continuing and officials are trying to identify the dead.

Authorities said they believe the colliery managers delayed reporting the accident for about six hours while they tried to mount their own rescue operations, which meant a crucial opportunity to rescue trapped miners was missed and casualties probably increased.

Xinyao, owned by Ruizhiyuan Mining Co, held full, valid licenses to produce 210,000 tons of coal a year.

Xu Zhancheng, engineer-in-chief of the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Coal Mine Safety, said preliminary investigations indicate a coal-dust explosion.

Authorities including Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, Zhao Tiechui, chief of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, and Zhang Baoshun, Party secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee, went to the mine on Thursday.

It is China's second deadliest mining disaster this year. In August, 181 miners died when rain flooded two mines in eastern Shandong Province.

(Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai Daily December 8, 2007)
?