Forty-three Chinese miners were killed in two separate gas
explosions on Monday.
A
gas explosion left 25 people dead on Monday afternoon at an
unlicensed coal pit in Wenshan County in southwest China's
Yunnan Province. Ten others were injured and remain
hospitalized.
The pit is run by local villager Yu Xinghong, said officials with
the provincial coal industry administration.
Xu
Rongkai, acting governor of Yunnan, rushed to the scene to organize
rescue operations.
In
central China's Hunan
Province, 18 coal miners died after a gas leak in the Zijiang coal
mine in Lengshuijiang, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Liu Ruoliang, deputy director of the mine, said 30 miners were
working underground when the explosion took place on Monday
evening; 12 workers survived.
The bodies are still in the mine and will be moved out for
identification when police finish investigating.
Provincial authorities, including Zhang Yunchuan, acting governor
of Hunan, and Zheng Maoqing, deputy governor, have led teams of
rescue workers.
The central government ordered small, private mines to close down
after a series of fatal blasts last year.
Official statistics indicate that 57,600 small mines were shut down
in the first 10 months of last year across the country.
But profits have tempted some to remain open despite their poor
equipment and lax safety measures.
(China
Daily January 16, 2002)