A gas explosion in a coal mine in China’s northeast killed at least 203 miners, the government said today, in the deadliest such disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.

Rescue workers today pulled 17 more bodies out of a blazing shaft where a methane gas explosion killed at least 36 miners, a union chief said.

At least 16 coal miners have died and 77 workers are missing in an explosion in a mine that reopened illegally after being closed for safety reasons.

Ninety-three coal miners were today trapped in a mine that reopened illegally after being closed for safety reasons.