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China coal mine blast kills 68, traps over 100

Posted on: Monday, 28 November 2005, 02:45 CST

BEIJING (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through a coal mine in China's northeastern province of Heilongjiang, killing 68 miners and trapping 79 underground, just days after Chinese leaders called for vigilance to prevent major accidents.

The blast was reported on Sunday at Dongfeng Coal Mine, run by a branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining (Group) Co. Ltd., the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, quoting the provincial coal mine safety administration.

Seventy-four of 221 miners working underground at the time of the blast were rescued, Xinhua said. A coal-dust explosion had knocked out all ventilation systems in the pit, investigators said. The main system resumed operation on Monday.

The explosion was the latest disaster to strike Heilongjiang, whose capital city, Harbin, was held hostage for five days by a toxic spill coursing through the river that provides its water supply, forcing a five-day shut-down of tap water.

The slick, caused by an explosion at a chemical plant in nearby Jilin province about two weeks ago, passed through the Songhua River and out of Harbin at the weekend. Taps were turned back on Sunday.

Making no mention of the toxic spill, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called last week for vigilance to prevent major accidents which cause huge casualties and property losses.

Hu and Wen urged law enforcement agencies to implement stricter inspection measures and punish those responsible in accordance with the law, state media said, without elaborating.

WORLD'S DEADLIEST MINING

China's mining industry is the biggest and the deadliest in the world. Accidents killed more than 2,700 miners in the first half of this year alone.

The country has launched safety campaigns to clean up and shut down illegal mines in the hope that consolidating China's thousands of tiny and primitive operations will improve safety.

But booming energy demand and high coal prices has driven some mine owners to ignore regulations and Sunday's blast, at a state-owned mine, shows that larger players are not immune from disasters.

Longmei Group is a conglomerate of four state-owned major coal businesses in the northeastern province, with a registered capital of 13 billion yuan.

China's worst coal mine accident this year killed 214 people at a state-run mine in the northeastern province of Liaoning.

Accidents and disasters cause more than 1 million casualties annually in China. They also bring economic losses of 650 billion yuan each year, equivalent to 6 percent of gross domestic product, Xinhua said in a separate report, citing Wang Jikun, a senior official with the Ministry of Public Security.

Source: REUTERS

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