- Authorities are launching an investigation into the deadly incident.
- The miners working in the well accuse the businessman of lack of care.
- China orders “tough repressive measures” against illegal activities.
Rescuers in northern China were searching Sunday for two people still missing after a gas explosion killed 82 people at a mine that authorities said was plagued by serious safety violations.
The explosion at the Liushenyu pit in Shanxi province on Friday was the country’s worst mining disaster in nearly two decades, with 247 workers underground at the time, authorities said.
AFP Journalists on Sunday saw relatives waiting anxiously next to a checkpoint blocking the road leading to the mine, awaiting news of their loved ones.
A man, smoking nervously on the sidewalk, said AFP Calls to his brother, a father of three, “could not be made” since the explosion.
He said he had “no idea how the accident actually happened” and that his parents still didn’t know their eldest son was missing.
“I don’t dare tell you,” he said, asking not to be identified.
Authorities launched an investigation into the explosion and said preliminary findings showed that the Tongzhou Group that operated the mine had committed “serious illegal violations.”
“Those responsible will be severely punished in accordance with laws and regulations,” officials said in a news conference broadcast on the state channel. closed circuit television.
More than half of the workers working at the well on Friday had sunk without being properly registered, state media said, citing a staff meeting at the site.
Typically, miners must undergo facial recognition checks or take location tracking cards before their descent.
‘All possible efforts’
A “responsible” person in the company had been “put under control in accordance with the law”, Xinhua The news agency reported earlier.
Miners working at the Liushenyu pit accused their employer of lack of care and said AFP They had to buy safety helmets with their own money.
“From what I have seen, the management (at this company) is the worst,” said a 58-year-old miner from Shandong, who has worked in several coal mines over the past three decades.
Wishing to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, they said AFP They had been working the morning shift on Friday and were not at the mine when the gas explosion occurred.
“If we had been (working) a few hours later, it would have been us,” the 58-year-old said.
AFP has contacted Tongzhou Group for comment.
The State Council, China’s cabinet, nationwide ordered “tough crackdowns on illegal and unlawful activities,” including falsification of security data, unclear counts of underground workers and illegal hiring.
rescue efforts
Hundreds of first responders rushed to the scene after the explosion, and as of Saturday night, medical teams took 128 people to hospital, loaded them into ambulances and transported them on stretchers.
Helmeted rescuers took turns descending into the shaft overnight to search for the two missing workers and sent a robot to investigate conditions at the mine, state media reported.
“As long as there is hope, we will make every effort,” one rescuer said. Xinhua.
The explosion is the worst since 2009, when 108 people were killed in a mine explosion in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
Wang Yong, the injured survivor, said closed circuit television “I didn’t hear any sound, but then a cloud of smoke appeared.”
“There was a smell of sulfur, like when people set off firecrackers. When the smoke went down, I yelled at people to run.”
He recalled seeing people suffocated by smoke before passing out.
“After more than an hour, I recovered on my own and then I woke up the person next to me” and walked out, he said. closed circuit television.
Foreign leaders expressed their condolences to the victims and their families, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she was “praying for the rescue of as many people as possible.”
India’s Narendra Modi expressed hope that “the grieving families will find strength in this tragic hour.”
Shanxi, one of China’s poorest provinces, is the center of the country’s coal mining industry.
Mining safety in China has improved in recent decades, but accidents still occur in an industry where safety protocols are often lax and regulations vague.
In 2023, a collapse at an open-pit coal mine in the northern region of Inner Mongolia killed 53 people.
China is the world’s top coal consumer and largest emitter of greenhouse gases, despite installing renewable energy capacity at record speed.
