Seven miners were killed and five were injured in a blast at a mine in western Romania, authorities said yesterday.

Officials said the explosion, which may have been caused by an accumulation of gas, occurred at Anina coal mine in Caras Severin county at 5.30 a.m. An investigation was under way.

We found two more bodies," a member of a rescue team who went into the mine to look for survivors told private television station Pro TV.

Earlier in the day officials said five bodies had been found while two people were still missing. Five injured miners were admitted to hospital with burns and gas intoxication. Doctors said three were in serious condition. Around 200 people were working in the mine at the time of the blast, the Economy Ministry said in a statement.

Anina coal mine, 230 years old and 1,200 metres deep, is Romania's oldest still exploited and one of Europe's deepest. The worst accident in Romania's mining industry after the 1989 fall of Communism killed 14 in 2001.

The Black Sea state has been restructuring its inefficient mining sector by closing old mines and laying off thousands of miners over the past years.