The official news agency Xinhua stated that the incident at the Liushenyu coal mine in Changzhi city occurred on Friday evening, with 247 workers trapped below ground.
Initially, the agency reported early Saturday that eight people had died, with 38 others trapped underground.
The cause of the explosion is currently under investigation, Xinhua indicated, and rescue operations are ongoing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a comprehensive rescue effort for the missing and an investigation into the circumstances of the accident, stressing the need to hold those responsible accountable, as reported by Xinhua.
Shanxi province is recognized as China’s primary coal mining region. Covering an area larger than Greece and home to around 34 million residents, the province’s labor force extracted 1.3 billion tons (1.17 billion metric tons) of coal last year, representing nearly a third of the nation’s total production.
