One miner was confirmed dead and 14 others missing after a coalmine gas blast in southwest China's Guizhou Province on Sunday, local government sources said on Monday.

The gas blast occurred in the Wulunshan Coal Mine in Nayong County at about 10?PM Sunday when 104 miners were working underground. 89 workers managed to escape, according to He Gang, head of the Guizhou Provincial Administration of Production Safety.

Such accidents are considered unfortunate natural geological disasters. Large volumes of harmful, suffocating gas breaks out in underground shafts and within a few seconds reaches such densities that explosions are more than likely.

The state-owned Wulunshan Coal Mine is run by the Guizhou Energy and Chemical Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of the state-owned Yanzhou Coal Group in eastern Shandong Province, He Gang said.

Investigations into the cause of the accident are underway.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2006)