Carbon monoxide 100 times above safety levels is hampering efforts to rescue 32 miners trapped in a coal mine in north China's Hebei Province.

Dong Guangjun, vice-director of the work safety bureau in Tangshan, where the mine is located, said the chances of survival for those still underground were slim.

The death toll following the coal mine blast on Wednesday rose to 74 yesterday.

The explosion occurred at around 3:15 PM at Liuguantun Mine, in the city's Kaiping District, when more than 130 miners were working, said Xu Xiangbin, an official with Tangshan government.

The management said that 82 miners got out safely.

The coal mine, with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons, was privatized in 2002 and employs about 520 miners.

On Wednesday evening, Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), told the local government to freeze the bank accounts of the owners.

Ji Yunshi, governor of Hebei, also rushed to the site to command the rescue effort.

"The mine does not meet safety production standards," said Zhao Tiechui, head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.

Xu said families of the victims would be given 200,000 yuan (US$24,000 ) each in compensation.

Besides, the owner of the coalmine has set aside more than 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) for compensate, Xinhua reported yesterday.

The amount of the compensation was fixed in accordance with a regulation released in March by the local government.

Seven miners were trapped yesterday when a coal mine was flooded in Changchun, provincial capital of Northeast China's Jilin.

Forty-two miners were still trapped underground yesterday after a tunnel flooded a coal mine in Central China's Henan Province on December 2. There is hope that they can be rescued as the water level was decreasing, said a SAWS official.

(China Daily December 9, 2005)