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| Sunday, 2 May 2004 |
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More than 50 dead or missing in latest Chinese mining disasters BEIJING, May 1 (AFP) Thirty-five miners were Saturday reported dead and another 16 missing a day after two coal mine accidents that further reflect appalling work safety standards and a lack of employment rights in China. The death toll from mine gas explosion in northern Shanxi province rose to 35 Saturday with one miner still missing, while 15 miners were trapped and feared dead in a mine flood in neighboring Inner Mongolia, officials said.Hou Jieyan, a spokesman for the Shanxi Coal Mining Safety Inspection Bureau said an investigation into the blast at the Liangjiahe state-owned mine near Linfen city was ongoing. He said that the mine had not had any plans to shut down for China's week-long May Day labour holiday due to safety concerns. "Under ordinary circumstances, coal mines do not take vacations, we must work continuously. If we want to stop work, then we need to go through all the safety inspections again and this is very troublesome," Hou said. Hopes of saving 15 miners at a the Xinyuan coal mine in Wuhai city, Inner Mongolia were fading as water levels in the mine shaft rose above the level where the miners were working, officials there said. "According to the rescue team on the scene the level of water has exceeded the area where the miners were working, so its difficult to say, they are trying their best to rescue them but the flooding is serious," an official named Xu at the Inner Mongolia mining safety bureau said. The township-owned mine had no plans to shut down for the labor day holiday, he added. Coal demand has skyrocketed in energy-hungry China and mines have been working overtime under appalling safety conditions with nearly 7,200 miners dying in accidents in the first 10 months of last year. |
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