State news agency says death toll in northern China mine accident has risen to 73, Associated Press reported. A gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in northern China on Sunday. It also trapped another 65 in the still burning shaft. The official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday's pre-dawn blast occurred while 436 workers were in the Tunlan Coal Mine in Gujiao city near Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province. Xinhua said 371 miners either escaped or were pulled out by rescuers. The report did not say how many were injured. State television channel CCTV showed rescuers in orange suits and red helmets with headlamps entering an elevator to be lowered into the mine shaft, while others emerged from the mine carrying workers on stretchers toward waiting ambulances. Nearly 100 rescuers were onsite but their work was hampered by flames still burning in the shaft, according to CCTV's report. The injured miners were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, Xinhua reported, citing doctors at a nearby hospital. Prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless gas, can lead to death.
