Nine miners have been confirmed dead and 44 others are still trapped underground after a gas blast occurred in a coal mine on Wednesday afternoon in China's southwest province of Sichuan, local government said in the early hours of Thursday morning.

A total of 120 miners were working underground at the Xiaojiawan Coal Mine in Panzhihua City when the blast occurred at around 6 p.m., sources with the rescue headquarters and the city government said.

As of midnight, 70 people had been lifted out of the mine and were rushed to seven hospitals in Panzhihua. But three miners died at hospital, according to the sources.

Six of 50 workers trapped underground have been confirmed dead.

Rescue work involving more than 70 people is underway. A work team led by Yang Dongliang, director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), is on the way to the mine to oversee the rescue work.

The coal mine is owned by Zhengjin Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. in Panzhihua, some 750 km southwest of the provincial capital Chengdu.

Sources said the owner of the mine has been put under police custody for investigation.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2012)