Relatives of victims angrily demanded answers yesterday as the death toll from China’s worst mining disaster in two years climbed to 104 and hopes of finding more survivors faded.
Rescuers recovered 12 more bodies, a spokesman for the mine in Heilongjiang Province said, leaving four miners still unaccounted for after Saturday’s huge blast.
A preliminary investigation pointed to lax management at the state-run mine, according to Luo Lin (羅琳), director of the State Work Safety Administration and head of a probe into the tragedy.
“The mine’s safety responsibility system did not work, they were not checking earnestly enough for hidden dangers,” Luo told state television. “This accident was clearly linked to a lack of responsibility.”
Rescuers braving toxic gases were pressing on with a desperate search of the Xingxing mine in the city of Hegang to try to locate the four men, mine spokesman Zhang Jinguang (張金光) said.
“Rescue operations are still continuing. If we haven’t found them yet we believe they are still alive,” Zhang told reporters. “If there is any chance of finding them, we will not give up.”
State television, however, quoted officials as saying the missing miners were believed to have been working near the center of the explosion, the latest tragedy in the country’s notoriously dangerous mining industry.
Smoke could still be seen yesterday billowing out of an entrance to the mine, one of the largest and oldest in China, as authorities turned to the task of dealing with grieving relatives.
Families of the dead miners would receive up to 300,000 yuan (US$44,000) in compensation, the China News Service said.
Zhang said psychologists were being brought in to help survivors and relatives of victims cope with the disaster, which also injured more than 60 people.
A group of women waited outside an entrance to the mine office in sub-zero temperatures, crying and shouting angrily in despair.
“I haven’t had any news. My husband was only 42,” said one woman, tears streaming down her face.
A second woman complained that her family had received no information about the fate of her younger brother.
“He was my little brother. It’s been three days and still we haven’t had any news,” she said.
Journalists also saw dozens of people shouting in what appeared to be a protest in Hegang, but police cordoned off the crowds and prevented reporters from reaching them. Zhang said the gathering was unrelated to the disaster.
The accident was the worst in energy-hungry China since an explosion killed 105 miners in Shanxi Province in December 2007, and has reignited concern over safety and working conditions in the country’s mining sector.
Even as rescuers searched the Heilongjiang mine, state-run Xinhua news agency reported 11 workers had died and three were missing in a similar blast at a coal mine in Hunan Province on Sunday.
China’s coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety standards often ignored in the quest for profits and the drive to meet surging demand for coal — the source of about 70 percent of the country’s energy.
Official figures say more than 3,200 workers died in coal mines last year, but independent labor groups say many deaths are covered up.
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