A fire accident in a sulphur mine in a northwest China province killed ten miners, rescuers said on Wednesday.
Seven bodies of the trapped miners have been lifted from the pit while the remaining three also have been confirmed dead, state run Xinhua news agency reported.
The mine, located in Chengcheng County of Shaanxi province, caught fire around 1 pm on Tuesday when 27 workers were working underground to repair air shaft facilities, a statement from the county's publicity department said.
Zhong Hongliang, a rescuer monitoring harmful gas at the head of the pit, said mist containing carbon monoxide keeps rising from the pit, which can lead to coma.
Thirty rescuers have made continuous efforts to rescue the trapped miners and they found that the concentration of the carbon monoxide in the pit has stood at about 1,000 parts per million (ppm) which can be fatal, according to Dang Li, leader of the rescue team.
Nine of the rescued workers were being treated at a local hospital while the other seven escaped unhurt, state run Xinhua news agency reported.
Initial investigation showed that the accident was caused by a fire broke out at a cable when miners doing some repair works in the pit.
