Nine people are still missing as of Monday after a colliery fire in central China's Hunan Province on Jan. 5 killed 25 miners, a local official said Monday.

Three miners at Lisheng Coal Mine in Xiangtan County were previously thought missing. But investigators eventually established that only 51 of 85 miners trapped by the underground fire escaped safely, said He De'an, deputy chief of the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Work Safety.

It was confirmed that eight of the nine were still trapped underground while the other one might have escaped, He said, adding that the search would continue.

He blamed the inconsistency to poor management of the mine.

"It is difficult to count the number of trapped miners because the management is in disorder. Even managers were not sure about how many miners were working underground when the accident occurred," said He, head of an investigation team sent by the provincial government.

The investigators had to visit more than 100 local residents to find clues because many miners returned home after the accident.