At least 74 people are estimated to have been trapped and 40 others were killed after a gas blast in a colliery on the early hours of Thursday in north China's Shanxi Province as rescuers have saved 13 miners from the pit, the China News Service reports.

The accident took place in Zuomu village, Hongtong county in the city of Linfen.

Further details were not immediately available.
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(CRI December 6, 2007)