Coal Mine Blast Death Toll Rises to 62 in China’s Hebei Province

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency); all times local

Shijiazhuang, 8 December: By 8.00 a.m. Thursday [0000 gmt], 62 miners were confirmed dead and 13 others remained missing in a colliery explosion Wednesday afternoon in Tangshan city of north China’s Hebei Province, the emergency rescue headquarters said Thursday.

Altogether 104 miners were working in the pit when the blast occurred at 3.30 p.m. Wednesday at Liuguantun colliery, Kaiping district in the city of Tangshan.

As of 8.30 a.m. Thursday, rescuers have saved 29 miners and are searching with all-out efforts for the 13 missing.

Investigators said the tragedy was caused by gas explosion.

Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, and Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, left Beijing Wednesday evening for the accident site to oversee rescue work.

The coal mine, formerly state-owned, was privatized in 2002 with designed annual production capacity of 300,000 tons.