The accident is believed to have occurred in the early hours on Tuesday morning, with Xinhua News Agency reporting that 28 miners were in a shaft when the blast occurred.

Eleven miners managed to escape from the Anping coal mine in China's Guizhou Province, but three later died in hospital.

Initial reports said 13 miners had died from the explosion but the death toll has since risen following the search and recovery effort at the mine.

A cause for the blast has not yet been identified but an investigation into the incident is underway, said Xinhua News Agency.

China’s coal mines remain the most dangerous in the world, despite a recent government crackdown on illegal mines.

According to figures obtained from the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, 2433 miners were killed in coal mine accidents in China in 2010, while Xinhua news service said there had been 512 coal mine incidents in China this year as of June 2011.

Ten Chinese miners were recently killed after a flooding accident occurred in an underground coal mine, which forced China National Coal Group to cease all of its operations in Shanxi Province.

Two of its mines have since been allowed to reopen.