Nine people were killed, including a rescue team, when they suffocated in a disused air shaft at a lead zinc ore mine in central China.

According to the state run Xinhua news agency, the accident happened on early Friday afternoon at a mine of the Changqing Lead Zinc Corporation in Yuanling county of central China's Hunan Province. Two miners in charge of equipment removal at the mine were overcome by a lack of oxygen at around 2 PM local time.

Xinhua said that a eight member rescue team that included three relatives of the victims was quickly established and entered the mine shaft to rescue the two victims. However, after they entered the shaft, they all died from a lack of oxygen.

Eventually, another rescue team was able to remove the bodies and found that one of the trapped miners had survived. He is being treated at a local hospital where he remains in a non life-threatening condition.

An investigation into the incident has been launched by the local government.

Also on Saturday, four miners were killed and another was seriously injured when a part of a coal mine collapsed in northwest China. The accident happened around 9 AM local time when 23 miners were digging underground at a mine owned by Xinjiang Shenhua Tiandian Mining Co Ltd, located in Hutubi County of China's Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture.

Although safety conditions have significantly improved in recent years, Friday's incidents are the latest in a series of deadly mine accidents in China.

(Sourced from Xinhua)