| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 18, 2001 |
Four Arrested for Deadly Mine Explosion in N. China |
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Four people responsible for a deadly mine explosion that killed 33 people in north China's Shanxi Province Thursday evening have been arrested by local police, according to reports Saturday.
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Mine Explosion Kills 33 in North China
Four people responsible for a deadly mine explosion that killed 33 people in north China's Shanxi Province Thursday evening have been arrested by local police, according to reports Saturday.
Police said, investigations show that Hou Junping, owner of the Podi Coal Mine in Jiaocheng County, deputy-head of the mine Wu Xinglong, production section chief Jin Zhirong and Yang Shiguo, head of a mine construction team, are directly responsible for theaccident. The four were arrested according to Chinese laws, said police.
NegligenceAn investigation into the negligence of other officials in connection with the accident is underway. The explosion, which occurred in the evening of November 15, claimed 33 lives and injured one miner. By Saturday morning, all the bodies of the 33 killed miners had been recovered, and the slightly-injured miner had been treated.
A total of 12 miners were rescued from the accident, police said. Investigators have determined so far that poor ventilation caused a gas explosion in the Podi mine.
SafetyAs of November 16, all the township- and village-run coal mines in Luliang Prefecture of Shanxi were ordered to stop production to undergo safety checks, local sources reported.
China has closed down 11,882 small coal mines during the first 10 months of this year in a campaign to ensure the safety of the mining industry.
Officials with the office of the Committee for Safety in Production under the State Council said the country reported 2,378 coal mine accidents for the same period and the death toll was down by 7.24 percent over the same period of last year.
They said that 905 of the 1,284 small State-owned coal mines, with the exception of those in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China, and the provinces of Heilongjiang and Liaoning, northeast China, have been shut down.
The officials said 10,977 small coal mines closed down were part of the 33,977 ones owned by township governments across the country.
The total number of small coal mines have been cut to 23,000 from 82,000 in 1997 while the country's overall annual coal output by small coal mines has dropped to about 200 million tons from 620 million tons in 1997.
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