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More than 400 miners were on the job when the explosion ripped through the mine before dawn yesterday. A number of victims died after being rescued.

Some of the miners trapped at the site outside Taiyuan, capital of the main coal-producing province of Shanxi, reportedly called their families on mobile phones from underground.

The death toll makes this the most lethal accident reported in China's disaster-prone mining industry since 105 people died in a mine explosion in December 2007, also in Shanxi. And the blast happened the day after senior provincial officials held a conference about mine safety, in which they pledged to try to put an end to deadly accidents.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao issued instructions to do everything possible to save those still trapped inside the mine.

One of the survivors, Xue Huancheng, 27, said he and his co-workers initially were not aware how serious the accident was and were not ordered to leave the mine until more than an hour after the blast.

"At that time, the power supply underground was cut off and we had to walk," he said. He reached the mouth of the mine after 50 minutes, and fainted from lack of oxygen.

A total of 436 miners were at work when the blast erupted, and more than 300 escaped alive.

Most of the the injured rushed to hospital after the accident were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. A total of 114 miners were under observation, including six who were in critical condition.

The mine, which has an annual capacity of five million tonnes, is operated by the Shanxi Jiaomei Group, according to Xinhua News Agency. It was considered a relatively safe mine, with no accidents reported over the past decade.

Government figures show that almost 80 percent of the nation's 16,000 mines are illegal.