Beijing: At least 15 people were killed and nine others injured in a coal mine gas explosion in north China’s Shanxi Province, local authorities said Tuesday.
The incident happened on Monday when 35 miners were working underground at the coal mine in Pingyao County when the blast happened, the Shanxi Administration of Coal Mine Safety said.
Authorities said that 15 people were killed in the blast while 11 miners managed to escape.
The injured miners were in stable condition and authorities were investigating the cause of the explosion, state-run news agency Xinhua said.
Deadly mining accidents are common in China, where the industry has a poor safety record. At a meeting last week, the State Council – China’s cabinet – ordered a ‘special crackdown on production-related safety issues’ to ‘further improve workplace safety’, Xinhua said.
In December 2018, seven miners were killed in southwestern Chongqing municipality after the connecting segment of a mining skip broke and fell down a mine shaft.
In October 2018, 21 miners died in eastern Shandong province after pressure inside a mine caused rocks to fracture and break, blocking the tunnel and trapping the workers. Only one miner was rescued alive.
In December 2016, explosions in two separate coal mines in the Inner Mongolia region and in northeastern Heilongjiang province killed at least 59 people.
AFP