At least 203 workers were killed after a gas explosion at a coal mine in north-east China in the worst mining disaster in the country’s recent history, mining officials and state media said on Tuesday.
Twelve others are missing while 28 were injured in the blast on Monday afternoon at the state-owned Sujiawan colliery in Fuxin city, Liaoning province, the Xinhua news agency said.
“So far, there are 203 dead,” said an official surnamed Zhao from the Fuxin Mining Group, which runs the colliery.
Thirteen were reported missing earlier but Xinhua said late on Monday that one of them had been rescued and was receiving treatment at a local hospital.
Among those injured, some suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while others were burnt or had bones broken. One man was in a coma, Xinhua said.
Thirty family members have also been hospitalised “due to deep grief”.
The State Administration of Work Safety attributed the blast, which occurred 242m underground, to a gas explosion.
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao issued orders demanding “all available measures” be taken to reach those trapped, Xinhua said.
In response, provincial governor Zhang Wenyue interrupted his Lunar New Year holidays to supervise rescue efforts, which were continuing in heavy snow.
Electricity and the ventilation system, blown out by the blast, should be reconnected later on Tuesday, Xinhua said.
A total of 574 miners work at the colliery but fewer than half of them were underground at the time. More than 180 rescuers were at the scene, it said.
Daily occurrence
Mining accidents and fatalities are an almost daily occurrence in China but are worsening amid a booming demand for fuel to drive the runaway economy.
China relies on coal for 70% of its energy needs and an ongoing power shortage has resulted in mines going into overdrive.
This never-ending demand meant miners at Sujiawan were working when millions of others around the country were on a week-long government-enforced break for the Lunar festivities.
“I really can’t believe it, I thought the mine had stopped production,” said Zhao Yunfu, a doctor in Fuxin. “This is not an isolated incident.”
The latest disaster comes barely three months after 166 people were killed in a coal-mine blast in northern Shaanxi province. Another gas explosion last October killed 148 miners in the central province of Henan.
Prior to that, the worst disaster was in 1991 when 147 workers died in an explosion in northern Shanxi province.
China’s coal industry, the most dangerous in the world, saw 6 027 workers die in accidents in 2004, official figures show. Although this was a 6% decrease from the previous year, critics and miners argue that lives continue to be sacrificed in the quest for energy.
“The Chinese government has an undeniable responsibility for this accident and for all the coal-mine accidents that have occurred before,” said Li Qiang, executive director of China Labour Watch.
“It is true that China has a huge demand for coal for its rapid economic development, but the development should not be achieved at the expense of miners’ lives.”
Labour rights groups say the real number of fatalities could be about 20 000 yearly as many accidents are unreported in an effort to keep mines open and to avoid costly fines.
In an indication of the sensitivity of the issue, Liaoning authorities ordered local media not to report the accident and instead to use only material from state-controlled Xinhua, journalists said.
Most of China’s pits still rely on manual labour to hack away at the coal face, resulting in output of just one tonne of coal per miner per day, compared with about 40 tonnes in the United States where mines are mechanised.
State media has been driving calls for change, demanding more investment and better conditions. With pressure growing, Wen last month pledged the government will do more.
His comments came as state media reported that China will spend 51,8-billion yuan ($6,2-billion) on better safety in mines. — AFP