Sixteen people were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in a north Chinese province on Friday.
Forty-eight miners were working underground when the blast occurred at the Shiyawan coal mine in the Pinglu district of Shanxi province, Xinhua news agency reported. The cause of the accident is still under investigation, the report said.
The Shiyawan coal mine is a township mine producing 90,000 tonnes of coal annually.
After the tragedy, all the 66 coal mines under the jurisdiction of Pinglu district were ordered to stop production for safety check-ups.
Last month, over 200 miners died in at least four major accidents, including one in central China's Henan province in which 148 people were killed.
