Twenty-eight miners have been killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in northeast China, state media have confirmed.
The accident at the Babao Coal Mine in the city of Baishan in Jilin province came on the same day as 83 miners were feared dead after a landslide near a mine in Tibet.
A further 13 workers were rescued after the incident at the colliery, which is owned by the state's Tonghua Mining (Group) Company, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
There is rising concern in China about the number of fatalities in mining accidents, as corrupt officials cut corners with safety measures in order to meet the insatiable demand for coal, making Chinese mines amongst the most dangerous in the world.
China is the world's largest consumer of coal, with the fossil fuel meeting up to 70 percent of the country's energy needs.
But its mines are among the deadliest in the world because of lax regulation, corruption and inefficiency. Accidents are common because safety is often neglected by bosses seeking quick profits.
Earlier this month 28 people were killed and 58 managed to escape to the surface after an explosion at the Machang coal mine in Guizhou Province, Xinhua reported.
An accident at a coal mine in southwest China killed 21 miners earlier this month, state media said. Xinhua said 58 had managed to get to the surface safely after the coal and gas outburst at the Machang coal mine in Guizhou Province.
An explosion at the Shangchang Coal Mine in the southwest Yunnan province left 17 people dead last December, while a month earlier, 23 people were killed in a gas explosion in a coal mine in Guizhou province, which borders Yunnan.
Last August, seven people died in a coal mine accident in the city of Jilin, which is located in China's northern industrial rustbelt.
The state administration of work safety said last year it would close more than 600 small coal mines, which are considered more dangerous than the larger mines.
Efforts to improve safety in China's coal mines have seen the numbers of accidents decrease in recent years.
The Chinese government last year closed down 600 of country's smaller and least safe mines. Official figures show a fall in the number of mining fatalities, with the 1,384 killed in 2012 down from 1,973 the year before.
However, many believe that the real death toll may be much higher, with managers often concealing fatalities and accidents in order to escape punishment and avoid being exposed as corrupt. The gains of a successful cover-up often outweigh the risks of a successful disaster response in China's authoritarian system, in which managers are rewarded for strictly adhering to centrally imposed targets.
But labour rights groups say the actual death toll is likely to be much higher, partly due to under-reporting of accidents as mine bosses seek to limit their economic losses and avoid punishment.
Zhang Dejiang, a leading Chinese politician who currently sits on the elite seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, previously said coal mine accidents "ring the alarm, warning us that accident prevention is a complex, difficult, and urgent task".
Saturday 30 March 2013
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/451887/20130330/china-mine-explosion-28-killed-blast.htm
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130329/china-mine-blast-kills-28-state-media-0
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