A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s northern Shanxi province killed at the very least 90 people, state media said on Saturday. It was the country’s deadliest mining accident in recent times.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the accident at Changzhi city’s Liushenyu coal mine happened on Friday evening. Around 247 staff were on duty on the time.
Nine miners were still unaccounted for as of Saturday afternoon, Xinhua said, and greater than 120 people were hospitalized.
The reason for the explosion was under investigation, Xinhua reported, and rescue work is pressing on with tons of of rescuers and medical personnel sent to the positioning. Among the many injured, many were hurt by toxic gas, based on state broadcaster CCTV.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for an all-out effort to rescue the missing, Xinhua reported. Xi also called for the “proper handling of the aftermath of the accident and urged a radical investigation into its cause, with accountability pursued in accordance with the law.”
Xinhua later reported that those answerable for the corporate involved within the mine accident have been “placed under control,” citing the local emergency management bureau.
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An investigation team sent by China’s powerful State Council, comparable to the country’s cabinet, can be conducting a “rigorous and uncompromising” probe into the deadly explosion, a separate Xinhua report said following Xi’s remarks.
Wang Yong, one among the hospitalized miners, told CCTV in a video interview that he smelled sulfur “like firecrackers” and saw smoke. “I told people to run,” he said. “As I ran, I saw people being choked by the smoke. After which I blacked out.”
The state broadcaster also reported that blueprints provided by the coal mine didn’t match the actual layout, hampering rescue efforts.
The coal mine, operated by the Shanxi Tongzhou Coal & Coke Group with an annual production capability of 1.2 million tons, was placed on a national list of disaster-prone coal mines by China’s National Mine Safety Administration in 2024 for having “high gas content.”
Shanxi province is referred to as China’s essential coal mining province. With a size larger than Greece and a population of around 34 million, the province’s tons of of 1000’s of miners dug 1.3 billion tons of coal last 12 months, almost a 3rd of China’s total.
In China, coal stays a key energy source because of its lower cost and high availability, at the same time as the country accelerates its transition toward green energy. Mining disasters have been common although authorities had implemented measures to enhance safety over the past years.
In February 2023, 53 people were killed after a collapse at an open-pit mine in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region. In November 2009, an explosion at a mine in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province killed 108, based on state media.
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