Rescuers said Friday there is faint chance for four missing miners to survive the gypsum mine collapse that occurred in north China's Hebei Province last Sunday.

The rescue work is becoming increasingly hard, with underground tunnels blocked by ruins of collapsed walls and ceilings and signs for further collapses at any time, the emergency rescue headquarters in Xingtai county told Xinhua.

The tragedy occurred at 7:40 p.m. on Nov. 6 at a gypsum mine in Shangwang village of Huining township in Xingtai county. The collapse affected two other gypsum mines nearby, toppling many of their buildings. Thirty-two people are confirmed dead and 33 injured.

Owners of all the three mines, namely Kangli, Taihang and Linwang, are now under police control and their bank accounts are frozen, the county's public security bureau said.

Liu Fengshan, a leading county publicity official, said all the dead miners had been identified and their families informed. "The Xingtai county government has received 1,300 family members of the victims and compensation fund is in place," he said.

According to a regulation issued by the provincial government in March, the minimum compensation for each dead miner is 150,000 yuan (about US$18,500).

In another development, the State Council, or the central Chinese government, set up a special team Friday to probe into the accident.

The team is led by Sun Huashan, deputy head of the General Administration of Work Safety, and has three subteams to provide technical, administrative and logistic assistance.

The team will work to pinpoint the cause of the accident, figure out the economic losses, advise the government on how those responsible should be penalized and set forth proposals on how to avoid similar mishaps.
 
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2005)