Coal Mine Accident Kills 21 in China
Twenty-one people died and four were missing after a methane gas explosion in a coal mine in Guizhou Province in southwest China, said on Wednesday the local government through the agency “Xinhua”.
The accident occurred around 20h local (9am GMT) on Tuesday at the mine Machang, when 83 miners were working inside.
The search still works in progress, but with great difficulty, since the toxic gas density is still high in the well, said the head of the rescue group, Jiang Liangquan.
The mine where the accident occurred, still under investigation, Gemudi belongs to the company, the Group of Mining and Water Guizhou, and has an annual capacity of 450 thousand tons.
On Monday, 25 miners were trapped after a flood in a coal mine in Heilongjiang province in northeast China. So far, only seven of them were rescued.
Each year more than 3000 workers die in Chinese mines, especially dedicated to the extraction of coal, the main energy source of the world’s second largest economy.
Many of the accidents are due to lack of safety measures in wells that operate illegally.