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China to Investigate Coal Mine Accident in Heilongjiang

Posted on: Thursday, 1 December 2005, 18:00 CST

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

Qitaihe, Heilongjiang, 1 December: The State Council, China's cabinet, announced Thursday [1 December] that an investigation team has been set up in the city of Qitaihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, officially launching the probe into the cause of the disastrous coal mine accident.

The investigation team is headed by Zhao Tiechui, head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety Supervision.

Zhao said the major responsibilities of the team is to find out the causes of the coal mine blast, identify the responsibilities of the chief leaders of the mine and give related proposals on punishment and measures that avoid the same tragedy to recur.

The investigation team will submit a detailed report when their researches finish.

The blast took place on 27 November in the Dongfeng Coal Mine, run by the Qitaihe branch of the Longmei Mining (Group) Co. Ltd.

As of Thursday afternoon, 164 miners were killed and seven people are still missing.

"It is a very serious accident," said Li Yizhong, head of the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision Administration.

He said it is China's 21st coal mine accident with death toll more than 100 since 1949.

He urged the investigation team to spare no efforts in finding out the causes of the accident as quickly as possible.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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