Death toll rises to 24 in Heilongjiang coal mine explosion

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Death toll rises to 24 in Heilongjiang coal mine explosion

The death toll in a coal mine explosion in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has risen to 24, rescuers said early Tuesday.

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The death toll in a coal mine explosion in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has risen to 24, rescuers said early on Feb. 24

Rescuers are still searching for the 13 workers trapped at the Baixing Coal Mine in Jixi City, said Vice Mayor Xu Zhenlin.

"Their chance of survival is slim" as high concentration of poisonous gas in the air and collapsed rocks make the rescue operations underground extremely difficult, said an expert with the rescue headquarters, who refused to give his name.

A total of seven rescue teams, each consisting of 10 rescuers, have been working in the shaft in turns. None of the bodies has been brought to the ground because the shaft is almost blocked and the failed ventilation system has not been repaired.

The blast occurred at 6:10 a.m. Monday when 37 miners were working in the shaft about 300 meters below the ground. Seven of them are from Sichuan Province in southwest China and the rest are all local residents.

Wang Shijun, who runs the mine, has been put under custody, a police officer said.

Liu Haisheng, vice governor of the province, and Wang Dexue, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety, have rushed to the mine to guide the rescue work and supervise the investigation into the cause of the explosion.

Baixing Coal Mine under Jixi Mining Group, located in Lishu District, has an annual designed production capacity of 60,000 tons. It defied an order to halt production issued by the provincial work safety department earlier this month when some hidden dangers for work safety had been revealed in the mine.

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