China finds 55 miners' bodies, fresh disaster hits

BEIJING, June 28 (Reuters) China has finally recovered the bodies of 55 coal miners trapped underground by flooding over a month ago, the government said, as a fresh accident claimed 13 lives in the world's deadliest mining industry today.

Bodies of all but one of the miners trapped on May 18 in Zuoyun county in the northern province of Shanxi had been found by Tuesday night, China's top work safety watchdog said.

''The search is still going on,'' the State Administration of Work Safety said on its Web site.

State media said the first body had not been retrieved until June 14 as a large amount of water in the pits and an initial cover-up by the mine owners greatly hindered rescue efforts.

In a country where mining accidents happen on almost a daily basis, the saga has not received high-profile coverage, except in the first few days of the accident.

This morning, a ''gas-related accident'' killed 13 and injured seven in a colliery owned by the Fuxin Mining Group in the northeastern province of Liaoning, Xinhua news agency said. It did not elaborate.

An unknown number of miners were missing, Xinhua said, citing provincial work safety authorities.

The Fuxin group was hit by China's worst coal mine disaster in decades when a gas blast killed 214 in February 2005.

Booming demand and high prices for coal -- which fuels about 70 per cent of China's energy consumption -- mean regulations are often ignored, production is pushed beyond safe limits and dangerous mines that have been shut down are reopened illegally.

Official figures showed that in 2005 some 3,300 coal mine blasts, floods and other accidents killed nearly 6,000 people.

The government has vowed to clean up the industry, but the deadly trend seems to be continuing in 2006.

Reuters KD GC1237