Sixty-two?miners have been confirmed dead and?13
missing after a colliery gas blast in Tangshan City in north
China's Hebei Province on Wednesday.
According to Xinhua News Agency today, rescuers were still
searching for those trapped at Liuguantun Coal Mine in Kaiping
District.
The report said 186 miners were working underground at around
3:30 PM yesterday, the time of the explosion, and that 82 managed
to escape it.
Accident workers recovered?59 bodies and rescued a further
32, three of whom died later despite emergency medical
treatment.
Vice provincial governor Fu Shuangjian and senior officials from
industrial safety regulators rushed to the site to direct rescue
operations and organize an investigation into the accident.
Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety,
and Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine
Safety, left Beijing for Tangshan yesterday evening.
The mine used to be state-owned, run by the local government
with a designated production capacity of 300,000 tons per year. In
2002, it was privatized and allocated an annual capacity of 150,000
tons.
A provincial administration of coal mine safety report
categorized it as a "low-gas" colliery.
(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2005)
