At least 24 miners have died in an explosion at a coal mine in north-western China, the government said on Sunday.
Thirty-nine miners were working underground when the gas blast occurred at the Wayaobao Coal Mine in Shaanxi province, China’s State Administration of Coal-Mine Safety said on its website.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the explosion occurred at 4.20pm local time on Saturday.
At least 24 died, seven survived with light injuries and eight are still missing, the coal-mine safety department said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the gas blast. Xinhua said investigations were under way.
Police have placed the owner and management of the Wayaobao mine under watch, sealed the mine’s records and frozen its accounts, according to Xinhua.
The State Administration of Coal-Mine Safety said the mine is licensed and has a capacity of 30 000 metric tonnes a year. Xinhua said it produced 31 000 metric tonnes of coal in 2005.
Calls to the mine, the local county government and the neighbouring Yanan city government rang unanswered on Sunday.
Thousands of workers are killed each year in China’s mines, the world’s most deadly. Fires, floods and explosions occur almost daily despite repeated safety crackdowns, mostly because of lax enforcement of safety rules and poor equipment.
Coal generates more than two-thirds of China’s electricity, and to keep pace with the country’s rapid economic development and surging energy demands, mines have stepped up output, often disregarding safety precautions in the pursuit of profits.
The Chinese government plans to shut down all small coal mines with an annual production capacity of under 30 000 tonnes by the end of 2007, as it also tries to encourage smaller mines to merge with larger, supposedly more safety-conscious ones, state media reported recently.
In China’s worst mine disaster in 60 years, 214 people were killed at the Sunjiawan mine in the north-eastern city of Fuxin on February 14 last year. — Sapa-AP