GUIYANG, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- At least sixteen people have been killed after a coal mine accident in southern China on early Tuesday morning, officials said on Wednesday. Two people remain missing.

The accident took place Tuesday morning at around 7:53 a.m. local time due to an outburst of coal and gas at the Anping Coal Mine located in the Lihua Township in Libo county, which is in China's southwestern Guizhou Province, local authorities told the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Min Luming, Secretary of the county committee of the Communist Party of China, said 28 workers were at the mine when the incident occurred. Thirteen of the workers were able to escape, but three of them later died at a local hospital while receiving medical treatment.

Emergency teams have continued to work at the mine and have pulled out 16 bodies as of Wednesday afternoon. The last three bodies were found at around 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday, but two workers remain missing and are feared to have been killed.

Officials have launched an investigation into the accident.

Last week, on September 25, at least five people were killed when a shaft collapsed at a coal mine in Qilin District of Qujing, a prefecture-level city in Yunnan province. A total of 23 people were working at the mine that belongs to Yunwei Group which is affiliated to the Yunnan Coal Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd. Sixteen people escaped and five bodies of the seven trapped were later pulled out while two were successfully freed.

Safety conditions at mines in China have significantly improved in recent years, but they remain among the world's most dangerous with 1,083 fatalities in the first seven months of 2011 alone. There were 2,433 fatalities in 2010 and 2,631 in 2009.

China in recent years shut down scores of small mines to improve safety and efficiency in the mining industry. The country has also ordered all mines to build emergency shelter systems by June 2013 which are to be equipped with machines to produce oxygen and air conditioning, protective walls and airtight doors to protect workers against toxic gases and other hazardous factors.

The first manned test of such a permanent underground chamber was carried out in August when around 100 people - including managers, engineers, miners, medical staff, and the chamber's developers - took part in a 48-hour test at a mine owned by the China National Coal Group in the city of Shuozhou in northern China's Shanxi Province.

One of the worst mining accidents in China in recent years happened in November 2009 when 104 workers were killed after several explosions at a coal mine in Heilongjiang province.

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