The State Council set up a team in Chengde, a city in north China's Hebei Province, on Sunday to investigate a coal mine accident that left 40 people dead and 10 others missing.

An explosion occurred at about 3:00 a.m. Thursday when 85 miners were working underground at the local Nuan'erhe Colliery. Thirty-four of them were lifted up to the ground immediately after the accident.

Among the 51 trapped, only one miner, name Sun Jisheng, had been rescued.

Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, was named head of the State Council team Sunday, He will lead three sub-teams to investigate into specific causes of the accident, calculate financial losses, suggest punishment on people responsible for the blast and provide cautionary tips to other coal mines.

According to the team sources, the team consisted of officials from relevant ministries, the Hebei Provincial Government and Chengde City Government. Colliery experts were also invited to form a separate panel to facilitate works of the State Council team.

Zhao said Sunday that rescue efforts have proceeded smoothly. His team would focus on handling the follow-up issues such as punishing individuals accountable for the accident and compensating families of the dead miners.

Located at Nanzhangzi Village in Bajia Township, the coal mine used to be state-owned, but was auctioned to the Beijing Guodian Zhongneng Electric Fuel Investment Co., Ltd. for 65 million yuan (about 7.8 million US dollars) in December 2003.

Source: Xinhua