The death toll from a coal mine explosion in northwestern China has risen to 64, with 102 miners still missing yesterday, as an underground fire and toxic fumes released by the blast hampered rescue work.
Hopes were fading for the missing miners.
If no one survives, Sunday's explosion would be one of the deadliest disasters in a decade to hit China's accident-prone mining industry.
Parts of the Chenjiashan Coal Mine were still burning.
Experts who entered its wrecked tunnels saw light blue smoke, suggesting the coal bed might have caught fire.
"This greatly hobbles the rescue work," said Song Zhigang, a local mine official.
By yesterday morning, rescue workers had recovered 62 bodies from the mine in Shaanxi Province, said Huo Shichang, an official of the provincial coal industry administration.
Five specialists arrived at the gas blast site to help the rescue and investigation work.
The specialists were appointed by the State Administration of Work Safety.
They will provide information in ventilation, coal mine gas, fire control and electric systems.
The coal mine is a high-gas-density colliery, featuring intergrowth of coal, oil and gas.
Its coal bed remains responsive to fires.
The mine used to suffer a fire every three to six months, and the shortest break between two fires was 24 days.
The sunday explosion devastated all ventilation systems underground, with a large amount of harmful gas bursting out.
Emergency workers descended into the mine on Monday to repair ventilation systems needed to pump out toxic carbon monoxide fumes.
The main ventilation system resumed operation on Monday.
But gas levels in some areas were still too high for rescue workers to enter.
State television yesterday showed stacks of blue oxygen tanks waiting outside the mine and officials studying blueprints as they organized rescue efforts.
The blast occurred 8 kilometers from the mouth of the mine.
The mine employs 3,400 people and produced 2.3 million tons of coal last year.
Another gas explosion there in 2001 killed 38 people.