Forty-three people were killed and 28 others injured on Friday after curious onlookers gathered to watch a house on fire, which suddenly exploded in north China's Shanxi province.

The explosion took place in a villager's home in Dongzhai village, Dongzhai township, local police said.

The toll was high as many villagers had gathered around the burning house.

Local Communist Party and government authorities of Ningwu and Xinzhou have rushed to the spot to oversee rescue work.

Ningwu was not the first time shattered by this fatal blast. On July 2, 2005, a gas explosion at the Jiajiabao coal mine in Ningwu killed 36 people and injured 11.

The mine's owner hid the bodies of 17 dead miners after explosion to evade punishment.

With vast coal reserves, Shanxi province, commonly known as "sea of coal", is the biggest coal producer in China.