The bodies of two dead miners were recovered Saturday afternoon, seven days after an explosion at a coal mine in Jixi City of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

This brought the death toll of the mine blast to nine by 10:00 Sunday morning.

The bodies were found Saturday afternoon near the shaft where the blast occurred, and brought to the surface of the well, according to Sun Weimin, head of the rescue team for the accident.

Rescuers are continuing their work to clear up the shaft, whichwas said to be filled up with rubbles and lumbers. They are now still five meters away from the bottom of the main vertical shaft.

It is reported that there is still one miner trapped in the shaft.

The explosion happened at Hada village of Jidong county at about 5:00 a.m.on April 10, when 10 miners were working underground.

After the explosion, the provincial government called an emergency meeting in Jixi City to launch a special campaign acrossthe province to shut down all coal pits in the province.

The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

Source: Xinhua