Last Thursday's fluorite mine flood in the Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region has claimed the lives of all eight
trapped miners.
Wang Shihua, deputy director of rescue operations, declared the
last missing miner dead on Thursday afternoon, although teams
continue to search for his body. "There is no place in the tunnel
where the miner could have survived, and no signal for help has
been heard," Wang said.
Desperate but futile efforts to locate him had continued for 180
hours. Rescuers believe that the body might be buried somewhere in
the tunnel.
Wang Yingfu, head of the investigation team from the regional
government, said that the teams might have to give up the
search.
The accident took place at the Jinfeng Fluorite Mine in Chifeng
at about 10:00 AM on March 31, when water poured into the
750-meter-long shaft following a cave-in. Nine miners were working
underground at the time and only one escaped.
In southwest China's Chongqing
Municipality, a gas explosion at a coal mine belonging to the
Tianfu Mining Company killed one man immediately and trapped 22
others underground. The blast occurred at about 2:00 PM on
Tuesday.
By Thursday, rescue teams had located 16 bodies, but seven
miners remained missing.
The local government organized rescue operations but the high
density of gas inside the tunnels slowed their efforts. More than
40 people were working to restore ventilation and rescue operations
were expected to conclude Friday morning.
The Chongqing Administration of Coal Mine Safety Supervision is
investigating the cause of the accident. Police have reportedly
detained suspects, but the number and their names were not
provided.
In Shanghai, one person was killed and another injured in an
accident at Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. (Baosteel) on Thursday.
The accident occurred when the supporting structure of two
furnaces in one of the workshops burned through. The liquid steel
-- with a temperature of up to 1,000 degrees ℃ -- gushed out and
caught fire, according to the Shanghai fire brigade.
Two firefighting teams were immediately called in and had the
fire under control three hours later.
Firefighters said one person was killed and another badly
hurt.
The injured person was sent to the nearby Baosteel Hospital,
then transferred to Changhai Hospital after preliminary cleaning of
the wounds, said a doctor from Baosteel Hospital.
A company spokeswoman surnamed Zhang said the worker was not
badly injured but refused to release more details about the
accident or the dead worker.
Baosteel is China's largest iron and steel conglomerate. It
ranks sixth in the world, with annual output of 20 million
tons.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily April 8, 2005)