China: 11 killed after vehicle carrying explosives exploded near mine pit in Benxi City

Eleven dead, nine injured after a vehicle carrying explosives exploded near a mine pit in Benxi City, North-East China's Liaoning Province.

According to Chinese media, Twenty-five people are still trapped under the well, rescue operation underway. The injured have been rushed to the hospital and the municipal government of Benxi, where the accident occurred, has dispatched a rescue team, CCTV said.

Deadly mining accidents are common in China due to lack of safety precautions. A gas leak killed at least 18 people working in a coal mine in central Hunan province in May last year.

Seventeen other coal miners were killed when a lift used to move workers fell down a shaft in northeastern Heilongjiang province in March 2017.

In December 2016, explosions in two separate coal mines in the Inner Mongolia region and in Heilongjiang killed at least 59 people. Also in 2016, 33 miners were killed in a colliery explosion in October in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, and in September at least 18 were killed in a mine blast in the northwestern Ningxia region.