Blasts kill 26 at mine, oil tank in China's west

BEIJING, Oct 29 (Reuters) Separate accidents in China's far west killed at least 26 people, one a blast at a coal mine, the other when an oil tank under construction exploded, state media said.

The mine blast occurred early yesterday in Miquan city near the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi, killing 14 miners whose bodies could not be retrieved until late in the day, Xinhua news agency said.

Another six men working near the mine entrance suffered burns but were not in danger, Xinhua said in an overnight report.

Temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees F) prevented rescuers from entering the mine, but crews finally reached the stricken miners through an emergency tunnel some six hours after the explosion, it said.

At least 12 workers were killed and 12 injured when an oil tank under construction exploded last night in a district of Karamay city, about 260 km from Urumqi, Xinhua said today, citing local officials. The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong said the Karamay accident killed 17.

The Xinhua report quoted local safety official Sheng Shaokun as saying explosion was caused by an accumulation of paint fumes while treating the inside of the tank.

The death toll could rise as rescuers were still trying to confirm the exact number of casualties at the tank, being built to store crude oil by Dushanzi petrochemical company, a branch of China National Petroleum Corporation, Xinhua said earlier.

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