A total of 2,187 people were killed in coal mine accidents in the first five months of this year, up 9.7 percent over last year's same period, said Wang Dexue, deputy director of the State Administration of Production Safety on Thursday.

There were 23 major coal mine accidents, with each claiming more than 10 lives, in the first five months, a rise of 43 percent on a year-on-year basis. These major accidents killed 546 miners in all, 274 percent higher than the number a year ago, he said.

Outlining the nationwide production safety situation, Wang said that China saw 350,000 accidents of various types from January to June 10, which claimed 52,000 lives. The figure failed to come down compared with the same period of last year.

The accidents killing 30 people each numbered six so far this year, two cases more than the same period of last year, Wang said.

In addition, the production safety situation still presents perils, including a large group of occupational disease patients and potentially large economic loss, Wang said.

China has an annual direct and indirect economic losses of about 250 billion yuan (30.2 billion US dollars) resulting from various accidents in recent years. The major reason for the soaring accident figures is enterprises' failure to fulfill their responsibilities for production safety, he said.

Source: Xinhua