BEIJING, July 7 (UPI) -- A fire broke out in a coal mine in east China's Shandong province, trapping 36 miners in the third such mine disaster since the weekend, officials said.
Work safety officials said an air compression device more than 700 feet underground caught fire Wednesday evening at the mine owned by Zaozhuang Fangbei Coal Mine Co. Ltd in Shangdong province, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
A subsequent Xinhua report said eight of the miners had been rescued, still leaving 28 trapped underground.
There were a total of 91 people underground when the fire broke out but by Thursday morning, 63 of them had been accounted for, the report said.
Rescue work was proceeding and authorities have ordered an investigation into the fire.
Two mine disasters last weekend had trapped at least 40 miners in them, although rescue work was still under way.
One of the mines is in southwest China's Guizhou province, where 23 miners were trapped after it flooded Saturday. A massive rescue effort has been under way, but the fate of the trapped miners remained unknown.
The other accident occurred also Saturday when a coal mine in nearby Guangxi Zhuang province caved in, killing three miners and trapping at least 17 more.
Heavy rains in the region were blamed for the two mine accidents.
Separately, a poisonous gas leak at a garment factory in Jiangjin district near Chongqing city in southwest China Tuesday killed at least four people, Xinhua reported, quoting local authorities.
The report said the gas leak occurred at the dyeing facility. Two other workers were seriously injured, the report said. Neither the name of the gas nor the cause of its leak was reported.
