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.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese