Rescuers said they had almost finished searching the mine in northern China's Shanxi province following a gas explosion Thursday and found 104 bodies, according to the Xinhua news agency, which had earlier reported 105 dead.

At least 120 workers were in the Ruizhiyuan mine at the time of the accident on Wednesday night although the exact number is not known, Xinhua said, citing the local rescue headquarters.

Fifteen people have been rescued or managed to escape, it added.

The State Administration of Mine Safety said it remained unclear how many were still missing.

"We still don't know the exact numbers who are trapped. We are trying to clarify that," administration spokeswoman An Yuanjie told AFP.

But she said any who remained underground were likely to be dead.

"The chances of them surviving are very small because it was a gas explosion," she said.

Police have detained 33 people over the accident and formally arrested five, the China News Service said.

"Public security organs have detained 33 relevant people. At the same time, they have issued warrants for the arrest of the mine's owners," the China News Service reported on its website.

Xinhua said the mine's manager Gao Jianmin and its legal representative, Wang Hongliang, were among those detained. It said the mine company's bank accounts had been frozen.

Local residents AFP contacted by phone described nearby communities -- home to many of the mine's workers -- as grief-stricken, and said many angry relatives had rushed to the colliery seeking news.

"We are all full of sorrow," said a male resident of Hongguang village, where the mine is located.

"It was a big mine and many of the miners were from here," he said, declining to give his name.

Official media on Friday blamed the mine's managers, saying they allowed mining in an unauthorised area of the site to extract more coal than their licence allowed.

Compounding their mistakes, they allegedly failed to report the accident for more than five hours while sending in their own rescue teams, which were not properly trained, wasting precious time.

"They sent rescue teams down the shaft but they were not professional rescue teams... this made the accident even worse," An said.

An said on Thursday that some of the people involved in the initial rescue work were among those unaccounted for. However, on Friday she said it was unclear exactly how many of them remained missing.

Police reportedly threw tight security over the area in an apparent attempt to control the information flow from the latest horrific accident to embarrass the government.

At least a dozen police checkpoints have appeared on roads leading to the accident site and journalists have been ordered not to report on it, the Beijing News said.

AFP calls to several local residents Friday were cut off after a few minutes.

China's coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety standards often ignored in the quest for profits and the drive to meet sky-rocketing Chinese demand for coal.

The fossil fuel is the source of about 70 percent of China's energy.

More than 4,700 coal miners died in China last year, according to official figures -- or nearly 13 a day.

But independent labour groups put the real toll at closer to 20,000 annually, saying many accidents are covered up.

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