Gas explosion at southwest China mine kills at least 7

Gas explosion at southwest China mine kills at least 7

2010-10-29 18:17:14 GMT+7 (ICT)

CHENGDU, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- At least seven miners were killed on Friday when a gas explosion hit a coal mine in southwest China, state-run media reported.

The blast at the Zhaojiahe Mine in Wanyuan City, in the country's Sichuan Province, happened at around 11 a.m. local time when 13 miners were working down the shaft. Few details about the accident itself, except that it was a gas explosion, were not immediately available.

The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that rescuers initially saved six miners. but one of them passed away while en-route to a local hospital. The rescuers also recovered six bodies, while one is still unaccounted for.

Safety conditions at mines in China have significantly improved in recent years, but they remain among the world's most dangerous with around 2,600 fatalities in 2009 alone.

On Wednesday, twelve people were killed and another was injured after a flooding accident at a coal mine in the southwestern Chinese province of Guinzhou.

And earlier this month, a gas leak at a Pingyu Coal & Electric Co. Ltd.-owned coal mine in Yuzhou City of central China's Henan Province killed 37 miners. The bodies of most of them, 20, were recovered within several hours but it took several days more to retrieve the other bodies.

In November 2009, 104 miners were killed after several explosions at a coal mine in China's Heilongjiang province.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-10-29