The death toll in a coal mine explosion in northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province has risen to 24, rescuers said early Tuesday.
The search continues for 13 workers trapped in the Baixing coal
mine in Jixi City, said Vice Mayor Xu Zhenlin.
Chances that the 13 have survived are slim. The high
concentration of poisonous gas in the air and piles of stone make
the rescue and recovery operations underground extremely difficult,
said an expert with the rescue headquarters, who refused to give
his name.
Seven 10-member rescue teams have been working in the shaft in
turns. None of the bodies has been brought out of the mine because
the shaft is almost blocked and the failed ventilation system has
not been repaired.?
The blast occurred at 6:10 AM Monday, as 37 miners were working
in the shaft about 300 meters belowground. Seven are from Sichuan
Province in southwest China and the rest are local residents.
Wang Shijun, who runs the mine, has been taken into custody, a
police officer said.
Liu Haisheng, vice governor of the province, and Wang Dexue,
deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety, rushed
to the site to oversee rescue and recovery operations and supervise
the investigation into the cause of the explosion.
Baixing coal mine, operated by the Jixi Mining Group, has an
annual 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 unsafe conditions were found in the
mine.
Meanwhile, the confirmed death toll from a blast that ripped
through an explosives factory in north China's Hebei
Province rose to eight as another three bodies were found, said
the local rescue headquarters Monday.
As of press time, five workers were still missing and their
chances for survival were "very slim," said a rescue expert.
The only person to escape with injuries was hospitalized,
according to the headquarters.
The blast occurred at an explosives factory of Xinguang Chemical
Engineering Company in Yixian County at 5 PM Sunday, when 14 people
were working. The three-story building collapsed in the
explosion.
A deputy director of the factory took workers to inspect
equipment on Sunday after some leakage of chemical materials was
discovered. The workers were testing equipment when the huge
explosion occurred, said a witness.
Rescue teams from the local army contingent have been searching
through the rubble for the missing workers using cranes and other
heavy equipment.
The company annually produces 8,000 tons of its main product,
dynamite.
(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2004)