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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 01, 2003

Gas Explosion Kills 18 in Northeast China

A gas explosion in a colliery in Northeast China's Liaoning Province killed 18 miners at the weekend and has left another eight missing, the mine's manager said Monday.


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Coal Mine Explosion in Liaoning
A gas explosion in a colliery in Northeast China's Liaoning Province killed 18 miners at the weekend and has left another eight missing, the mine's manager said Monday.

"Rescue efforts to recover the missing are still being carried out,'' He Wangku, manager of the Mengjiagou Coal Mine in Fushun's Xinbin County, told China Daily.

"It is hard to predict the condition of those missing but we will try our best to find them, even if a slim opportunity of survival exists.

"It will take at least another day or two to find out about the missing miners.''

Local officials said 46 people were working in the State-owned mine when the explosion occurred on Sunday. Xinhua reported that 16 of them died instantly and 20 managed to escape.

"All the injured were sent to a hospital in neighbouring Benxi, which is not far from the coal mine,'' He said. "They are in a stable condition.''

A hospital doctor said nine injured miners had been admitted since Sunday.

A primary investigation points to a gas explosion but inquiries are continuing.

Rescue teams from Fushun have travelled to the site of the accident.

"There are about 500 miners working at the State-owned Mengjiagou Coal Mine, some of them are temporary employees,'' said an official with Xinbin County's coal mining office.

The official alleged He was also in charge of safety at the mine.

Wang Xianzheng, head of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), called an emergency meeting in Beijing to deal with the tragedy.

The provincial work safety departments should co-ordinate the local governments' rescue efforts to minimize casualties, Wang said.

At the same time, thorough protective measures should be adopted during the rescue to avoid additional accidents, he said.

To learn a lesson from the unfortunate incident, a provincial work safety supervision campaign will be launched among Liaoning's coal mines.

SAWS officials said it was the second serious accident in less than a week following the March 22 accident in Shanxi Province which claimed 62 lives.

The State Council, work safety body and related central government departments have held several meetings to tackle the severe situation facing the coal mining sector in the first three months of 2003.

Each year, China's poorly-equipped collieries claim the lives of thousands of miners.


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