China coal mine explosion: 47 dead, 67 trapped (Roundup)

Nov 21, 2009, 10:12 GMT

Beijing - The death toll following a gas explosion at a coal mine in north-eastern China that killed 47 workers and left 67 miners trapped underground on Saturday was expected to rise, local media reported.

The explosion occurred at 2:30 am in the Xinxing mine in Hegang City, Heilongjiang province, with 528 miners underground, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing the provincial coal mining safety watchdog.

According to state broadcaster, CCTV, 47 bodies had been retrieved while 67 workers remained trapped at around 500 metres underground.

The report said at the time of the explosion an evacuation was under way after a warning about gas levels in the shaft.

Residents in Hegang, 10 kilometres from the mine site, said they had felt the blast, the semi-official China News Service reported.

Staff at the general management office of the Xinxing mine and the Hegang mining bureau administration office would not provide further details about the accident, when contacted by the German Press Agency dpa.

The Hegang central hospital said they had sent doctors to the scene.

The blast comes at a time when the central government is trying to reform China's notoriously dangerous mining industry, by closing illegal mines which have poor safety and environmental records. Mine owners across the board regularly flout safety regulations in order to increase production.

Authorities have already closed 120,000 illegal coal mines since 2005, and are due to shut down another 4,000 by 2010, the government- run China Daily reported.

In Shanxi province, another coal mining hub, the government is also attempting to rein in the industry by closing small and medium sized mines, and reducing the overall number of mines through mergers.

However, this latest accident is a reminder that there are ongoing safety concerns at even large state-owned mines.

China's official mining death toll was 3,215 last year, but industry analysts suspect the actual figure to be higher due to under-reporting.