AT LEAST 123 miners were trapped underground yesterday when water flooded a coal mine in northern China in the latest disaster to hit the world’s deadliest coal industry.
Underground water flooded the Wangjialing coal mine in Shanxi province, a region of China struck by numerous disasters in recent years, as 261 miners were working in the pit, according to the Shanxi province work safety administration and the region’s emergency affairs office.
The rescue agencies said that 138 of the miners were able to reach the surface safely, but the others remained trapped.
They said the cause of the flood was still under investigation. State broadcaster CCTV said the heads of the country’s coal mine and work safety administrations were leading a team of workers on their way to the site to assist with rescue efforts.
The mine, which lies between Xiangning county and the city of Hejin, covers an area of 180sq km, and the region has more than 2.3 billion tonnes of coal reserves, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Coal accounts for 69 per cent of primary energy in China, 42 per cent higher than the world’s average.
The industry remains the world’s most dangerous, and underground explosions remain an almost weekly occurrence.
As part of efforts to make the industry safer, experts are on hand to make sure that shafts are evacuated when gas reaches certain levels. But despite the best efforts of the authorities, small, illegal mines still prevail.
Many workers die in such illicit, unregulated mines around the country, run by unscrupulous bosses who think only in terms of meeting targets. While state mining authorities have been struggling to eliminate corruption, enforcement is difficult and demand for coal is enormous.