Two rescue operations in collieries are underway to save 10 miners trapped underground after separate accidents left a total of 10 dead.

Nine died in the first accident in a gas explosion in Hunan Province on Wednesday. The accident occurred at a mine in Chenzhou, when 17 miners were working underground. Three workers managed to escape from the blast.

In the other accident, one miner died and five are trapped below ground after a coal pit collapsed on Wednesday in Yichuan County, Henan Province.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2008)