Thirty-two Chinese miners trapped after a gas blast in a pit ordered to close last month have been found dead, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.
Rescuers found seven bodies in the Baixing Coal Mine in Jixi, north-east Heilongjiang province, on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from Monday's blast to 32, the agency quoted Vice Mayor Xu Zhenlin as saying.
It held out little hope for the five miners still missing.
Some 120 rescuers have been working in the shaft in turns. None of the bodies had been brought to the surface because the shaft is blocked by rubble and the ventilation system has failed.
Xinhua said some of the miners were workers laid off from local enterprises that had gone bankrupt.
The tragedy has played itself out time and again in China's vast mining industry, the world's deadliest, with accidents killing thousands every year.
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