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BEIJING, July 26 (AFP) - Eighteen miners were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in southwest China, state media said Friday, in yet another sign efforts to tackle the industry's appalling safety record were failing miserably.

The miners died on Wednesday evening at the illegally-operated Tiaojiawan Coal Mine near Liupansui city, Guizhou province, the China News Service reported.

There were 25 miners underground at the time, of whom seven were pulled injured from the pit, the agency said, not specifying how badly they were hurt.

China routinely announces crackdowns on illegally-run mines in an attempt to stem the seemingly endless series of fatal accidents that kill an estimated 10,000 miners each year.

On Thursday, state media said more than 1,000 small and unlicensed pits had been forced to close in the northern coal producing heartland of Shanxi province alone this year.

However accidents at mines, many of which are illegally run, continue to be announced almost daily.

Also Friday, it was announced that the suspected culprit behind an explosion at a gold mine in Shanxi had given himself up to police after more than a month on the run.

Wang Quanquan, foreman at the Yixingzhai Gold Mine in Fanzhi, where at least 37 people died in a blast on June 22, handed himself in on Thursday morning, the state Xinhua news agency said, saying Wang was "believed responsible" for the accident.

The incident gained particular notoriety after local reporters learned that the mine's owner had tried to cover up the deaths by hauling miners' bodies away in a truck and dumping them in caves nearby. The owner is already in custody.

A fire had broken out underground an hour before the mine's dynamite cache exploded, but miners were ordered to keep working.

According to observers and reports, many mines which are shut down reopen as soon as officials have left, often with mine owners paying bribes for local cadres to turn a blind eye.

At least 3,500 miners have died in Chinese mines so far this year, according to official figures and reports, a toll which many foreign experts consider a substantial underestimate.

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