Dozens killed in Chinese coal mine explosion
A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s northern province of Shanxi has killed at least 82 people, state media reported, after dozens were said to be trapped underground.
The accident at Changzhi city’s Liushenyu mine happened on Friday evening, the official news agency Xinhua said.
The death toll was a revised, lower number from earlier reports by state broadcaster CCTV that said 90 people had died.
The scene at the coal mine was “chaotic” in the immediate aftermath of the accident, they said, and figures provided at the time were initial and not definite.
The explosion was under investigation, local officials said, adding there were “serious violations” of the law by the mine’s operator. They did not elaborate on any specific violations.
Earlier on Saturday, Xinhua reported that rescue work was pressing on a day after the accident, with hundreds of rescuers and medical personnel sent to the site.
Among the injured, many were hurt by toxic gas, according to CCTV.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for an all-out effort to rescue the missing and an investigation of the accident’s cause while holding those responsible accountable, according to Xinhua.
Xinhua later reported that those responsible for the company involved in the mine accident have been “placed under control”, citing the local emergency management bureau.
An investigation team sent by China’s powerful State Council, equivalent to the country’s cabinet, would be conducting a “rigorous and uncompromising” probe into the deadly explosion, a separate Xinhua report said following Mr Xi’s remarks.
Wang Yong, one of the miners admitted to hospital, told CCTV that he smelled sulfur “like firecrackers” and saw smoke.
“I told people to run,” he said. “As I ran, I saw people being choked by the smoke. And then I blacked out.”
The state broadcaster also reported that blueprints provided by the coal mine did not match the actual layout, hampering rescue efforts.
The coal mine, operated by the Shanxi Tongzhou Coal & Coke Group with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons, was placed on a national list of disaster-prone coal mines by China’s National Mine Safety Administration in 2024 for having “high gas content.”
Shanxi province is known as China’s main coal mining province.
With an area larger than Greece and a population of around 34 million, the province’s hundreds of thousands of miners dug 1.3 billion tonnes (1.17 billion metric tonnes) of coal last year, or almost a third of China’s total.