Announced three days after one of the most senior Chinese leader said the coal mine safety a top priority for the government, gas explosions in mines without permission in central China killed at least 35 workers and 44 trapped again, the national work safety agency said Tuesday.
The explosion rocked a coal mine in Pingdingshan city in Henan province, about 1 on Tuesday, a city spokesman told the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.
A spokesman said 93 miners were working in the pit when the explosion occurred; 14 of them managed to escape immediately. He also said the mine, known as Xinhua Pit No. 4, has been under repair and not yet cleared to resume operations.
On Saturday, in remarks reported by the news agency at a coal industry conference, deputy prime minister Zhang Dejiang called for numerous improvements in mine safety to prevent, in particular, gas explosions at coal mines.An estimated 80 percent of the 16,000 mines operating in China are illegal, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. Government figures show that about 3,200 people died in mining accidents last year, a 15 percent decrease from 2007.In February, in the country’s deadliest coal mine accident in more than a year, at least 74 people died in a gas explosion, with 114 hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning. The blast at the Tunlan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, the coal mining heartland of China, also occurred just after midnight.In December 2007, a gas explosion in a mine in the city of Linfen, also in Shanxi, killed 105 miners, according to the work safety agency.
The explosion rocked a coal mine in Pingdingshan city in Henan province, about 1 on Tuesday, a city spokesman told the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.
A spokesman said 93 miners were working in the pit when the explosion occurred; 14 of them managed to escape immediately. He also said the mine, known as Xinhua Pit No. 4, has been under repair and not yet cleared to resume operations.
On Saturday, in remarks reported by the news agency at a coal industry conference, deputy prime minister Zhang Dejiang called for numerous improvements in mine safety to prevent, in particular, gas explosions at coal mines.An estimated 80 percent of the 16,000 mines operating in China are illegal, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. Government figures show that about 3,200 people died in mining accidents last year, a 15 percent decrease from 2007.In February, in the country’s deadliest coal mine accident in more than a year, at least 74 people died in a gas explosion, with 114 hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning. The blast at the Tunlan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, the coal mining heartland of China, also occurred just after midnight.In December 2007, a gas explosion in a mine in the city of Linfen, also in Shanxi, killed 105 miners, according to the work safety agency.
