Seventeen miners are confirmed dead and two others injured in
a?fire accident caused by gas leak?at a coalmine on
Tuesday in north China's Shanxi
Province, local coal mine safety officials said early on
Wednesday.
The fire accident occurred at 11:20 AM Tuesday in a pit
belonging to the Zhike Township Coal Mine, located in Zhongyang
County, Lüliang, a city 240 kilometers from the provincial capital
Taiyuan.
Twenty-six miners were working underground at the time. Only
nine survived.
Rescuers said many of the deceased miners were burnt or choked
to death. They detected little damage to the shaft and underground
lanes.
A spokesperson with the local mine safety administration said
the accident was a result of unauthorized production. The mine, run
by the Zhike township government, had been ordered to suspend
operations for safety reasons but its owners resumed operations on
Monday without authorization.
Six mine executives are in local police custody and authorities
have frozen the mining company's bank accounts.
Shanxi is a major coal production base. In the first seven
months of this year, there were a reported 90 coalmine accidents
that claimed 316 lives in total.
(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2005)