CHINA: In what's been a week of disasters in China, the country's lethal coal mining industry claimed more victims yesterday when the death toll from an explosion at a colliery in the northeast rose to 134.
The accident happened on Sunday when coal dust in the Dongfeng mine in Qitaihe caught fire, causing an explosion that ripped through the mine when 221 miners were underground. Fifteen were still trapped yesterday evening.
In what is becoming almost a daily segment on the evening news, state television ran pictures of grieving relatives, ambulances rushing to the scene and rescuers escorting a soot-covered survivor from the mineshaft.
Members of a rescue team searching for the trapped miners said the explosion knocked out all ventilation systems in the pit, although these were now back up and running.
This latest coal mining disaster comes when China's woeful industrial safety record is again up for scrutiny. State media widely quoted the country's leadership calling for tighter work safety measures to try to stop the rising death toll - in the first nine months of this year, 4,228 miners died in accidents.
The latest explosion took place in Heilongjiang, a province still reeling from a toxic spill into the Songhua river last week that held the provincial capital Harbin hostage for five days without running water. That pollution slick was caused by an industrial accident at a petrochemical plant.
China's coal mining industry is far and away the deadliest in the world.
Gas explosions, floods, mine collapses and other accidents kill more than 6,000 miners each year in China - 80 per cent of all coal mining deaths. The country's worst coal mine accident this year killed 214 people at a state-run mine in the northeastern province of Liaoning. A Chinese miner is 100 times more likely to die in an accident at work than an American miner.
China produced about a third of the world's coal last year but accounted for 80 per cent of mining deaths, and every million tonnes of coal produced in the country cost the lives of around five people.
And while small, illegally held mines are often held up as prime culprits when collieries explode, the Qitaihe colliery was operated by the sizeable Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Co, which is composed of four state-owned coal businesses in the province.
Dealing with the deadly industry is a delicate balancing act for the government. China needs energy to fuel its surging economy and coal-fired power stations provide the vast majority of China's energy needs. But the alarming rise in the death toll of miners, coupled with pictures of grieving relatives, can have a destabilising political effect, something the Communist Party is keen to avoid.
Aware of the potential for a public relations disaster just days after the attempted cover-up of the Harbin water crisis, China's top leaders have called on local authorities and colliery owners to improve their safety record or face punishment.
President Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao have urged officials to curb the "possible occurrence of big safety accidents which claim huge casualties and property losses".
China's cabinet will make safety overhauls a priority at coal mines, chemical plants and fireworks factories - all places where major accidents regularly occur - in coming months.
Last week, the government released a list of 580 unsafe coal mines whose licences to operate were cancelled as part of efforts to tighten controls.
China has shut down over 10,000 collieries this year to cut the death toll.