An explosion at a state-run coal mine in China's remote northeast killed 134 workers and left another 15 trapped underground, state press said yesterday, as frantic rescue efforts were underway for survivors.
A total of 221 miners were underground when the cave-in occurred about 9:40pm on Sunday at the Dongfeng coal mine, located near Qitaihe City in Heilongjiang Province.
One-hundred-and-thirty-four miners have been confirmed killed and 15 remained trapped, China's state-run radio reported.
PHOTO: REUTERS
However after a day of intense rescue efforts, 72 survivors had been pulled from the rubble, China National Radio said.
Xinhua news agency said a rescue team of 269 people was involved in the search for those still trapped, and that not all hope was lost.
"There are possibilities for the survival of other trapped miners," Xinhua said, citing officials at rescue headquarters.
Investigators said the accident was caused by a coal-dust explosion, which knocked out all the ventilation systems in the pit, according to Xinhua.
A coal-dust explosion is often caused when there is a gas blast, which ignites the coal dust suspended in the air or stuck on walls, Rui Susheng from the China Coal Research Institute said.
Heilongjiang Longmei Group, a mining conglomerate of four major state-owned coal businesses with a registered capital of 13 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion), owns the Dongfeng mine, Xinhua said.
The Longmei Group, the second biggest coal producer in China, had a combined output of 27 million tonnes of coal in the first half of this year and intends to list publicly in Hong Kong next year, according to previous state press reports.
Although many of the accidents in China's coal industry occur in illegal mines, the work-safety watchdog said the Dongfeng mine was fully licensed.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS