26 workers killed in two accidents in Xinjiang
(AP)
Updated: 2006-10-29 15:32
BEIJING - Two separate accidents in China's Xinjiang killed 26 workers, 14 of
them in a coal mine blast and 12 in an explosion at an oil storage facility,
state media reported Sunday.
The two explosions occurred Saturday, 17 hours and 300 kilometers (200 miles)
apart in Xinjiang.
Nothing in the state-media reports suggested the two incidents were linked.
An explosion had trapped the 14 coal miners in a state-run mine 30 kilometers
(20 miles) outside the provincial capital, Urumqi, and intense heat prevented
rescuers from reaching them for more than seven hours, the Xinhua News Agency
reported.
Six workers who had been at the mine's entrance suffered varying degrees of
burns, but they received medical treatment and their lives were not in danger,
the report said.
The other blast killed 12 workers who were cleaning a crude oil storage tank
at a facility belonging to the state-run China National Petroleum Co. outside
the city of Karamay, Xinhua and state television reported.
Eleven others injured in the explosion "were not in life-threatening
condition," said an information officer with the State Administration of Work
Safety, who only gave her surname, An. "That means the death toll is not
expected to go up."
The causes of both accidents were under investigation, An and state media
said.
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