Floodwaters caused by heavy rains poured into two coal mines in a town in eastern China, leaving 181 miners trapped and feared dead, government officials said today.

An explosion at a coal mine in north China on Wednesday killed at least 21 workers and injured 36, the government said, in the latest incident to hit the country’s disaster-plagued mining industry.

The death toll in China’s worst reported mine disaster in decades rose today to 213, the government said, as families laid their loved ones to rest.

Rescue crews were searching for Chinese coal miners missing today after a gas explosion killed 203 people in the deadliest mining disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.

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.