SHANGHAI, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Forty-eight miners were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in China's eastern province of Jiangxi, state media said on Friday, in the latest in a string of mine accidents that have taken thousands of lives this year.

The bodies were found after the blast that took place at a mine in the city of Fengcheng in Jiangxi late in the morning, the Xinhua news agency said, but did not provide details.

A local mining bureau official in Fengcheng confirmed the explosion to Reuters, but could not provide further details.

A new work safety law and greater efforts to patrol unsafe work sites have failed to stem the number of deaths in Chinese mine accidents so far this year.

Coal mine accidents killed 4,620 miners in the first nine months of 2003.