Death toll from E. China mine blast rises to eight
(Xinhua)Updated: 2006-11-29 20:07
NANCHANG -- Rescuers recovered another body from a coal pit on Tuesday bringing the death toll of mine blast in east China's Jiangxi province to eight, said local safety watchdog.
Rescuers are still searching for one missing miner. Seven were being treated in hospital on Wednesday, said a local government official.
An owner of the No. 961 Coal Mine surnamed Wang had been arrested, but the other five owners of the two mines were still at large.
Rescue work had been impeded because the mouth of the Lianying Coal Mine was filled by the mine boss after the accident and thick smoke and poisonous gas enveloped the No. 961 Coal Mine.
Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety who pounded his desk in anger at mine owners and local officials on Monday, asked the provincial safety bureau on Wednesday to arrest the mine bosses as soon as possible.
The provincial coal mine safety bureau ordered all the collieries in Leping city to shut down for inspections and pledged to destroy all illegal coal mines.
The explosion took place at 11:00 p.m. Sunday at the Linaying mine in Yongshan Town of Leping City, northeastern Jiangxi province. Seven miners at the adjacent No. 961 Coal Mine suffered burns.
Both mines had been closed several years ago and were operating illegally.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation.
Eleven people were confirmed dead in a coal mine gas blast Wednesday morning in northwest China's Gansu Province.
The past week has seen six coal mine disasters in which 107 deaths have been reported.
Chinese coal mines suffer frequent explosions, floods and cave-ins, claiming about 6,000 lives a year.
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