Eighteen bodies of trapped miners were found yesterday in a gas explosion that ripped through a colliery in Huaping County of Lijiang Prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Six miners are still missing in the accident, local government officials said yesterday.
Twenty-seven miners were working 1,400 to 1,600 meters underground when the accident occurred in Yongxing Colliery around 3:10 pm on Wednesday. Three of the miners were rescued immediately.
The three rescued miners were rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment, but the condition of the six trapped miners remains unknown. Intensive efforts were going on yesterday to rescue the six coal miners trapped underground, officials said.
The vice-governor of Yunnan Province, Li Xinhua, immediately went to the accident site to direct rescue efforts.
All the coal mines in the county were ordered to stop operation and conduct safety examinations.
In another development, rescue workers in north China's Shanxi Province found 10 bodies of miners after a fierce gas explosion in a coal mine in Anze County on Tuesday morning.
Sources from the local government confirmed that 25 miners were trapped underground when the blast occurred. However, 15 miners are still missing.
In a separate mining accident, all 33 trapped miners have been rescued from a flooded coal mine in the Fudong Mine of Shouyang County in north China's Shanxi Province by Wednesday.
The last nine miners were brought out and sent to hospital immediately, joining the other 24 who were rescued on Tuesday. The flooding happened at 2:10 pm on Monday.
Urgent action is needed to safeguard workplace safety, officials with State Administration of Work Safety said on Wednesday on a working conference.
(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2003)
