The death toll from a blast at a steel plant on Monday night in northeast China's Liaoning Province rose to 13 after another three bodies were recovered on Tuesday, local authorities and rescuers said Tuesday.

The accident happened when a mold exploded at 11:30 p.m. Monday at a steel-casting workshop owned by Angang Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd. in the city of Anshan, according to a statement issued by the publicity department of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China.

Ten people had been found dead by early Tuesday morning, and rescuers retrieved the bodies of three workers who had previously been reported missing by noon on Tuesday.

Another 17 people were injured in the blast and they were receiving medical treatment in hospital, according to the statement.

Of the 17 male workers aged between 20 and 51, 11 were in stable conditions with slight injuries, said Liu Yi, an official at the Anshan municipal public hospitals administration.

The rest six suffered burns to over 65 percent of their bodies and were still in critical conditions, Liu said.

The health authorities have offered the injured with the best medical staff and emergency treatment, Liu said.

The No. 1 Hospital affiliated to China Pharmaceutical University where the injured are being treated is the best hospital in China's northeast regions to treat burns, Liu told reporters.

In addition, the provincial health authorities also have sent a medical team to help treat the critically injured workers.

The mold, which was about 10 meters in diameter, exploded, and sand and concrete inside of it burst out when workers were about to finish the casting of a ring-shaped piece of steel, a worker who survived the blast told Xinhua.

Angang Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd. was once a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state-run Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corporation (AISGC). In 2005, it was turned into a shareholding company, with AISGC holding 49 percent of its shares.

The machinery company is one of China's largest machine manufacturers in the metallurgy industry, according to the company's website.