China's mining industry suffered another black day Wednesday with confirmation of the deaths of 24 people suffocated by a build-up of gas on Tuesday.

Two missing miners were rescued Wednesday from the mine in Central China's Henan Province, raising the number of survivors to 19.

The accident occurred at about 22:30 on Tuesday when 43 miners were working underground at the Xingfa Coal Mine in Wenshu Township under the administration of the city of Yuzhou, an official with the General Administration of Work Safety Wednesday.

Seventeen miners managed to ascend safely from the pit.

"Five miners poisoned by the gas were hospitalized after rescue," said an official on the scene in charge of the rescue.

According to latest data from the General Administration of Work Safety, the nation's top watchdog for work safety, 25 serious colliery accidents, mainly gas explosions, occurred during the first seven months of the year, killing a total of 733 miners.

Investigation into the cause of the Xingfa accident is under way and repairs are being carried out to the colliery's shafts, officials said.

Primary investigations suggest the coal mine, which had stopped production for repair and maintenance before the accident, had violated safety regulations, officials said.

The Xingfa township-owned colliery has an annual production of 60,000 tons, said officials from the provincial bureau of work safety.

The accident puts renewed question marks over the safety of coal production in Henan Province.

Although Henan has been the country's second largest coal producing province since 1986, behind Shanxi in North China, most of its collieries suffer from limited scale, poor safety facilities, serious pollution and rampant waste, officials said. Many mines even face the risk of running out of coal.

According to Henan provincial statistics, there are 52 State-owned coal mines and 1,569 small, privately run coal mines in the province.

Source: China Daily