All of the eight trapped rescuers who attempted to put out an underground fire at a coal mine in southwest China's Guizhou Province have been confirmed dead on Wednesday, local authorities said.
  
Their bodies have been found at the Beile Coal Mine belonging to the Guizhou Jinyuannengfa Company in the county of Nayong, Bijie Prefecture, a spokesman with the provincial administration of coal mine safety supervision said.
  
A gas blast took place at about 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the coal mine when 12 rescuers were trying to put out an underground fire that happened on Monday, the spokesman said.
  
Four of them managed to escape but the other eight were trapped underground.
  
They were all from the Guizhou Liuzhi Industrial and Mining Group and were sent here on Monday to deal with the combustion in the coal mine.
  
The combustion left no casualty in the mine.
  
With an annual production capacity of 150,000 tons, the coal mine started operation in April, 2005.
  
An investigation into the cause of the blast is underway. 

Editor: Yan