Coal mine accident kills 25 in north China

BEIJING, Nov 13 (Reuters) At least 25 coal miners in north China suffocated after illegally stored explosives caught fire, generating toxic gas, Xinhua news agency said today.

Only two of the 36 miners working underground late on Sunday at the Nanshan Colliery in Lingshi county, Shanxi province, managed to escape, Xinhua said.

State television earlier said the latest in a series of fatal disasters to hit the world's deadliest mining industry happened today and described it as a gas blast.

''Rescuers have found 25 bodies while the other nine are still trapped,'' it said, adding the village-run mine had already been ordered to halt production in September as both its operation and safety licences had expired.

Xinhua said the explosives had ''caught fire'', rather than been detonated, at the mine which has an annual output of 90,000 tons.

The accident came just a week after an explosion killed dozens of miners in another part of Shanxi, which produces a quarter of China's coal, and prompted authorities to launch a coal mine safety overhaul in the province.

The death toll from the November 5 blast in Jiaojiazhai coal mine rose from 23 to 35 on Monday, state television said.

Rescuers are still searching for 12 miners.

In July, a ''coal dust'' explosion killed more than 50 people at another mine in Lingshi county.

Separately, flooding at the Bide coal mine in the southwestern province of Guizhou killed six workers and trapped two yesterday, Xinhua said.

The almost daily series of accidents highlights China's uphill battle to clean up its mining industry while struggling to meet booming demand and high prices 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.

Floods, blasts and other accidents in China's coal mines killed 345 in October, 44 per cent higher than the previous month, according to official figures.

Despite a 22 per cent decline in fatalities from a year earlier, 3,726 Chinese coal miners died in more than 2,300 accidents in the first 10 months of 2006.

REUTERS PDM KP1610