China mine blast kills 17, dozens missing

BEIJING, Nov 6 (Reuters) Seventeen miners were killed when a gas explosion tore through a coal mine in northern China and dozens were missing, state media reported today, adding to the country's grim series of mining calamities.

The blast hit the Jiaojiazhai mine in coal-rich Shanxi province yesterday, Xinhua news agency said, blaming violations of safety regulations.

By late last night, rescuers had found 17 bodies and 30 were still trapped in the mineshaft, their fate unclear, the semi-official China News Service said.

Another 346 miners working underground at the time of the blast managed to escape.

The chief of China's work safety authority, Li Yizhong, arrived at the mine last night to oversee rescue operations, but efforts to reach the trapped miners were impeded by dense gas and collapsed tunnels, the report said.

The mine belonged to the Shanxi Tongmei Group, and was known for its high accumulation of gas, according to the China News Service.

China is struggling to meet booming demand for coal, which fuels about 70 per cent of its energy consumption.

In the rush for profits, safety regulations are often ignored, production is pushed beyond limits and dangerous mines that have been shut down are reopened illegally.

Despite a 23 per cent decline in the death toll from mine accidents in the first nine months of 2006 compared with the same period of the previous year, 3,284 coal miners have died in more than 2,000 accidents through September.

End-of-year pressure on mines to meet orders and production goals encouraged mine operators to neglect safety, Xinhua said.

A separate accident on Saturday in the northeastern province of Jilin that killed seven was caused by miners smoking underground, Xinhua said.

Investigators found cigarette butts at the accident site in the Nanyang Hongyuan Coal Mine and rescuers said gas concentrations in the shaft were too low to self-ignite.

Reuters DKA RS1351