According to latest reports, another miner has been killed and 29 are still trapped underground after two gas explosions on Thursday. Seven have been confirmed dead and 5 rescued from Tuesday's two mine accidents, and there are no further reports from Sunday's. Twenty-one are still in hospital after a chlorine leak on Wednesday.
At 9:40 AM on Thursday a blast at Yongshan Coal Mine in Jiangxi Province trapped four miners. No deaths have been reported, according to the local rescue headquarters, and rescue efforts are under way.
The mine is owned by Leping Mining Company, part of the Jiangxi Coal Corporation Group.
In Shaanxi Province, rescuers have recovered the body of one miner trapped by a gas explosion at about 9:15 AM the same day in Shangyukou Colliery, a private coal mine near Xihancun Village in Hancheng City, according to the provincial government this morning.
The explosion trapped 29 miners, three of whom have been rescued and 25 of whom remain underground. Rescue work is still going on.
With an annual production capacity of 60,000 tons, Shangyukou underwent a technical upgrading last year. It had two 120-meter deep shaft pits and a 600-meter-long tunnel leading to them.
According to latest reports from two mine accidents on Tuesday, the seven miners trapped after a blast at Kanghai Coal Mine in Inner Mongolia have all been confirmed dead, whilst five miners at Tangbian Coal Mine in Hunan Province have been rescued after being trapped for 60 hours by a flooding.
There was no further news on the 25 miners trapped after the flooding at Tengda Coal Mine in Jilin Province on Sunday.
Twenty-one victims of a chlorine leak on Wednesday remain in hospital, doctors said yesterday, though none are in a critical condition and should be able to return home soon.
"Another 55 affected by the accident in Qujing City, Yunnan Province, have been released," said Peng Zhixin, a government official from Qilin District, where the leak took place. 200 people were evacuated and 76, including 74 school students, sent to hospital due to discomfort.
The accident occurred at the Qujing Workers' Palace at around 11 AM when a chlorine bottle, used to sterilize a swimming pool, was moved and shaken by waste collectors, according to a local media report.
One of the evacuated said a "terrible smell" spread at about 11:20 AM making his throat hurt and breathing difficult.
The bottle was immersed in water by police called to the site so that the remaining chlorine could be diluted, he said.
Peng said the chlorine bottle had been almost empty so there was not much actual leakage, and that by Wednesday afternoon, everything at the Workers' Palace had returned to normal.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2005)
