BEIJING - Chinese authorities have detained the owners of an ill-fated coal mine in the country's northeast where ten people remained trapped Saturday, state media say.

Police took the two owners of Baoxin Coal Mine in Heilongjiang province into custody on Friday, a day after an explosion at the facility trapped the miners, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The owners were not identified.

Xinhua said rescue efforts to free the miners were being hampered by heavy flooding in the mine triggered by the explosion.

In January 2003 an explosion at the same mine killed 34 people.

Underground explosions are often blamed on mine owners' failure to install required ventilation equipment to clear gas that seeps out of the coal bed.