ZHENGZHOU, Aug. 4(Xinhuanet)-- Death toll in the central China coal mine accident has risen to 26 with the discovery of another two bodies, coal mine safety officials said Thursday.

By press time, twenty-six miners instead of the previously confirmed 24 were choked to death Tuesday night when gas spilled out of a pit in the Xingfa Coal Mine in Wenshu Township in the city of Yuzhou in central China's Henan province.

Forty-three people were estimated working down the Xingfa coal mine when the accident occurred at around 10:30 p.m., said a spokesman with the provincial administration of coal mine safety.

The death toll was originally fixed at 24 when the search for the victims was declared over Wednesday. However, families of the two victims did not find their dead relatives in the process of the identification of bodies.

The rescuers searched again in the coal mine and found another two bodies, the coal mine safety officials said.

The search work for more dead was going on and the figure of the final death toll remained unknown, the official said, adding the leading personnels in charge of production of the coal mine had all fled after the accident occurred who were still at large. Enditem