A gas explosion tore through a state-run coal mine in northern China yesterday, killing 42 people and trapping 66 others nearly half a kilometer under ground.
The accident was a blow for the Chinese government, whose large state-owned coal mines are generally considered to be safer than smaller, private ones. The country’s mines remain the world’s deadliest, despite efforts to close or bring hundreds of them under state control.
A total of 528 people were working in the Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang Province at the time of the 2:30am explosion, the State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement. It said 389 escaped after the blast.
China Central Television reported that 42 were dead, 31 were rescued and the others were trapped about 500m under ground. The report said the explosion was caused by a gas buildup.
It shattered windows within 20m of the mine shaft.
A man answering the phone at the mine said an unknown number of people were injured. He did not want to give his name, as is common among Chinese officials.
The mine is located near the border with Russia, about 400km northeast of the provincial capital of Harbin.
It is run by one of China’s top 520 state-owned enterprises, according to the Web site of its owner, the Hegang branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Holding Mining Group.
The Web site says the Hegang branch has more than 88,000 employees.
China depends heavily on coal to generate about three-quarters of its electricity needs.
The government has been cracking down on unregulated mining operations, which account for almost 80 percent of the country’s 16,000 mines.
The closure of about 1,000 dangerous small mines last year helped to cut in half the average number of miners killed to about six a day in the first six months of this year, the government has said.
Major gas explosions in coal mines remain a problem, though the number of accidents and deaths have gradually declined year by year, the chief of the State Administration of Work Safety, Luo Lin, told a national conference in September.
In the first nine months of this year, China’s coal mines had 11 major accidents with 303 deaths, with gas explosions the leading cause, the central government said.
Most accidents are blamed on failures to follow safety rules, including a lack of required ventilation or fire control equipment.
A blast at the Tunlan coal mine in Shanxi Province killed 77 people in February in China’s worst industrial accident in a year.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
RSS