13 killed in mine blast

Rescuers have found the bodies of 13 of the 21 miners who were trapped after a gas explosion at a coal mine in Jincheng, North China's Shanxi Province.

The search for the other miners is still going on, said sources from the rescue headquarters yesterday.

The blast occurred at 6:30 pm on Sunday at Miaojiang Coal Mine, in Chengqu District of Jincheng, but the mine owner allegedly failed to report the accident to the emergency services, said sources with Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Work Safety.

On Tuesday afternoon, people close to the company reported the accident to the provincial bureau of work safety, which ordered Jincheng Bureau of Work Safety to immediately investigate.

A rescue team arrived at the site at 8:40 pm on Tuesday to discover the main shaft and the side passage were sealed off. The rescuers unblocked the shaft and discovered that the miners had been working beyond the officially approved coal bed.

Police have arrested Wang Junjun, the owner of the Miaojiang Coal Mine. Questioned by police early yesterday, Wang allegedly admitted there was a gas blast on Sunday and that 21 miners who were below ground at the time were trapped, but failed to provide the exact time of the explosion.

The fate of the trapped miners remains unknown.

The Shanxi Office for Resources Integration had instructed the Miaojiang mine to merge with the nearby Gaojiang Coal Mine, with a combined production limit of 90,000 tons a year.

Instead of following the instruction, the operators of the Miaojiang mine organized production illegally and breached the approved limit for coal production, which led to the accident, a spokesman for Jincheng government said.

All coal mines in Jincheng had been ordered to stop production and carry out risk evaluations since the blast.

"Coal mine operators should draw lessons from Sunday's explosion and ensure that safety measures be carried out to the letter," he said.

Provincial Party and government leaders ordered the use of all possible resources in the rescue operation, and demanded the exact number of the casualties, cause factors, and an investigation into the alleged cover-up followed by appropriate legal action.

Vice-Governor Jin Shanzhong yesterday led a group of experts to Miaojiang Coal Mine to oversee rescue efforts.

Source: China Daily - Xinhua