The death toll from China's worst mining disaster for two years rose to 104 as relatives of victims angrily demanded answers.
Rescuers recovered 12 more bodies, a spokesman for the coal mine in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province said on Monday, leaving four miners still unaccounted for after the weekend blast.
Efforts continued to reach the missing miners with rescuers braving toxic gases in a desperate search of the mine in the city of Hegang, spokesman Zeng Jinguang said.
"Rescue operations are still continuing. If we haven't found them yet we believe they are still alive," Zeng told AFP.
"If there is any chance of finding them, we will not give up."
The gas explosion ripped through the state-run Xinxing mine near the Russian border early on Saturday, the latest tragedy in the country's notoriously dangerous mining industry.
Smoke could still be seen on Monday billowing out of an entrance to the mine, one of the largest and oldest in China, as authorities turned to the task of dealing with relatives.
Zeng said psychologists were being brought in to help survivors and relatives of victims cope with the disaster.
A group of women waited outside an entrance to the mine office in sub-zero temperatures, crying and shouting angrily in despair.
"I haven't had any news. My husband was only 42," one of the women wailed, tears streaming down her face.
A second woman also complained that her family had received no information about the fate of her younger brother, who was in the mine at the time of the accident.
"He was my little brother. It's been three days and still we haven't had any news," she cried.
The women, who would not give their names to AFP, were later escorted into the mine office.
Later, AFP journalists saw a crowd of dozens of people shouting in what appeared to be a protest in the city.
However police cordoned off the crowd and authorities prevented journalists from reaching them. Zeng said the gathering was unrelated to the disaster.
The accident was the worst in energy-hungry China since an explosion killed 105 miners in Shanxi province in December 2007, and has reignited concern over safety and working conditions in the country's mining sector.
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 surging demand for coal - the source of about 70 per cent of China's energy.
Despite a high-profile government campaign to shut down unsafe and illegal mines throughout the country, hardly a week goes by in China without reports of deadly accidents that kill scores of mine workers.
Even as rescuers searched the Heilongjiang mine, state-run Xinhua news agency reported 11 workers had died and three were missing in a similar blast at a coal mine in central Hunan province.
Official figures show that more than 3,200 workers died in coal mines last year. But independent labour groups say many more deaths are covered up.
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