The families of the 32 miners killed in the coal mine gas explosion in southwest China's Yunnan Province are to receive compensation, local sources said Monday.

Each family will get 200,000 yuan (25,000 U.S. dollars). To date, 20 families have received the money while the other 12, most of them in the nearby Sichuan Province or Chongqing Municipality, are to be paid soon.

The blast took place at about 5:17 p.m. Saturday at Changyuan Coal Mine in Fuyang, when 97 miners were changing shifts. Thirty-seven managed to escape unhurt and 28 were injured, but all are described as out of danger.

The mine is a privately owned business established more than two years ago. Its owner, a local named Yan Bangru, allegedly ran it in defiance of the county government's order to close.

Yan has been detained.

In another mine accident that left 32 dead on Sunday at Luweitan Colliery in north China's Shanxi Province, eight miners had been rescued by 10:00 p.m. Monday and taken to a local hospital. None of them were seriously hurt.

Chinese coal mines suffer frequent explosions, floodings and cave-ins, claiming about 6,000 lives a year.

Unsafe small mines account for two-thirds of the total fatalities.

Editor: Donald