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Chinese authorities probe cover-up in coal mine blast

Chinese authorities were investigating 63 people suspected of involvement in a cover-up of a coal mine blast in northern China that killed 35 people, state TV said yesterday.

CCTV reported that the mine owners destroyed the bodies of those who died in the July 14 accident and hid other evidence of the blast at a mine in Yuxian County, Hebei Province.

The owners also attempted to keep victims’ relatives and journalists quiet by paying them off or threatening them, the report said.

CCTV said 25 government officials are also being questioned in the probe.

The blast came to light after witnesses and victims’ families filed complaints and posted accounts of the explosion online. State media first reported the accident on Oct. 7 after a government investigation.

“The investigation has showed that a number of officials from the township and county were involved in the cover-up,” Peng Jianxun, deputy head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, told CCTV in an interview.

The station said that the head of the county and the leader of the Chinese Communist Party branch have been fired.

China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest, with numerous fires, floods and other disasters killing an average of 13 miners a day. Many accidents occur in small mines with low safety standards or in mines operated illegally.

Accident cover-ups also are common. The head of China’s workplace safety agency said officials underreported casualties in nine major accidents in the first quarter of last year.
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