Society

16 killed in gold mine fire in E.China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-07 14:23

ZHAOYUAN, Shandong: Rescuers lifted the last group of seven miners to the ground Saturday noon at a gold mine in eastern China where an underground blaze initially trapped more than 300.

Sixteen miners had been killed in the accident, officials said.

Most of the casualties were suffocated after inhaling toxic smoke. Some of them died in hospital, said medical workers at the Luoshan gold mine in Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province.

The majority of the more than 39 miners being treated in local hospitals did not have life-threatening conditions, doctors said.

"We smelt a pungent odor and suspected something might have gone wrong. We closed the vents and waited to be rescued," said Lu Ming, a miner being treated in the People's Hospital of Zhaoyuan.

Local officials said the sudden fire broke out at the mine at about 5 p.m. Friday after an electric cable caught fire. A total of 329 miners were working underground at the time. The underground blaze was put out hours later and power supply gradually restored.

Xinhua photographers at the mine saw medical workers walk some of the last rescued miners to ambulances. The miners appeared in good health but had their eyes covered by white cloth to avoid sudden exposure to the sun.

The cause of the accident is being investigated, official said, and the owner of the mine, run by Lingnan Mining Co. Ltd., had been taken into police custody, though the mine was fully licensed.

Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, led a ten-member work-team to Zhaoyuan Saturday. Previously, top provincial officials had arrived at the scene to oversee the rescue and investigation.

Mining casualties in China have been declining lately due to strengthened safety measures but the country is still plagued by mining accidents.

Also on Saturday, a gas outburst trapped six miners underground at a coal mine in Shifang City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, local authorities said.

The rescue is underway while there is no report of casualties yet.

Previously this week, two separate coal mine gas leaks in southwest and central China killed 27 miners in total.

Last year, 2,631 people died in 1,616 coal mine accidents, according to official statistics. The numbers were much lower than those from a year earlier.