Qitaihe, China ? Anxious relatives demanded to be allowed into a coal mine Monday after an explosion killed at least 138 miners and left 11 others missing, adding to a soaring death toll in China’s mines despite a safety crackdown.

The blast in the Dongfeng Coal Mine prompted national leaders to demand stricter enforcement of safety rules in China’s mining industry, by far the world’s deadliest, with more than 5,000 fatalities a year in fires, floods and other accidents.

Outside the Qitaihe mine in China’s northeast, a stream of emergency vehicles with flashing red lights and black government sedans made their way up and down the narrow, two-lane road to the mine entrance.

Security guards blocked the front gate as about a dozen people stood outside in subfreezing weather and a nighttime fog. Four women argued loudly with the guards, demanding to be let in to look for missing relatives.

“Why won’t you let us in?” one shouted. When the guards refused, the women shouted obscenities at the men.

People who answered the phone at the mine office said they were too busy to give any information.

The government said the explosion in Qitaihe was blamed on airborne coal dust that ignited.

Rescuers had found 74 miners alive by Monday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

It said 138 miners died in the explosion and a team of 269 rescuers was searching for 11 others, but gave no indication whether they were believed to be alive.

Efforts to close dangerous coal mines have been complicated by China’s soaring demands for power to feed its booming economy. The loss of mining jobs is especially painful in a region like the northeast, where state companies are laying off millions of workers in a struggle to compete in the new market-oriented economy.