Nine Died in Coal Gas Accident in Sichuan

Nine Died in Coal Gas Accident in Sichuan

---

A coal mine gas accident claimed nine lives on the morning of November 26 in the Red Star Coal Mine in Shifang City of Sichuan Province, southwest China.

Eleven miners were working together at the time of gas suffusion. Two miners escaped, leaving the rest suffocated and poisoned to death, investigators said.

After a mine-digging gunshot at 3.40 am, the coal mine tunnel was permeated with poisonous gas, said a coal mine official. The mine was closed for further investigation.

The coal mine, 3,000 meters deep, employs a total of 750 workers. Several coal mine gas suffusion and explosion accidents have been reported since the mine was put into operation in 1958. A gas accident in 1998 killed six people.