(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-13 21:46

TAIYUAN - Nine miners were rescued after a colliery blast in north China's Shanxi Province on Friday but 34 were still trapped underground, local authorities said.

The explosion occurred at about 11 a.m. in the facility of the Anxin Coal Mining Co. Ltd. in Xiaoyi City.

City officials said 58 miners were working underground at the time, 15 of whom were rescued after the blast.

Nine miners were lifted from the pit one by one between 5:50 p.m. and 6:10 p.m..

Ma Yingguo, from central China's Hubei Province, was the first miner to get out. He could walk on his own and asked rescuers to hasten their work.

Doctors quickly bandaged his eyes and rushed him to a hospital.

Most of the trapped miners were from southwest China's Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality and central China's Hubei Province.

The mine's licenses and certificates were valid and it passed a safety inspection earlier this year, officials said.

More than 100 rescuers from three local mine disaster relief teams were continuing to search for the trapped miners.