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China: Another mine tragedy
10/12/2004 07:39 - (SA)
Beijing - A coalmine explosion in northern China killed 33 people, in the latest disaster to strike the country's accident-prone mining industry, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.
The blast occurred at 14:20 on Thursday in Yuangquan, a city in the northern province of Shanxi, the report said.
It said 28 miners were killed in the explosion at the Daxian Sankeng Colliery, and then five people who descended into the pit to try to rescue them, also were killed.
Thick toxic gas clouded the mineshaft until early on Friday, the agency said.
"When emergency workers entered the mine later on Friday morning, they found the bodies of all 33 victims."
An investigation was under way.
About 40 other miners who were working underground at the time were able to escape, Xinhua said.
Disregard of safety rules
The Daxian Sankeng Colliery, a small, licensed mine produces 150 000 tons of coal a year, it said.
China's coalmines are the world's deadliest. Thousands of miners are killed each year in explosions, fires, cave-ins and floods.
More than 4 500 miners have been killed in China so far this year.
With each new disaster, the government vows to do more to stop the carnage. Many accidents are blamed on a disregard of safety rules or lack of required equipment needed to remove natural gas that seeps from the coal bed.
Mine owners are frequently blamed for putting profits ahead of safety, especially as China's soaring energy needs increase demand for coal.
NGOs to monitor work safety
China also bans independent trade unions, which have successfully pushed for better safety in other countries.
International rights workers are beginning to cast the problem as a human rights issue.
Li Qiang, executive director of New York-based China Labour Watch earlier this week said: "Mine owners, driven by profit, often violate regulations on safe practice, reduce investment in protective facilities to lower the cost, gang up with local officials and disregard miners' lives."
The group urged China to allow non-governmental organisations to monitor work safety.
Li was writing in response to a recent string of disasters, including an explosion in November 28, in central China that killed 166 miners, the nation's deadliest mining accident in years.
- AP
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