- Authorities launch investigation into fatal incident.
- Miners working at the pit accuse their employer of lack of care.
- China orders ‘severe crackdown’ on illegal activities.
Rescuers in northern China searched Sunday for two people still missing after a gas explosion killed 82 people at a mine that authorities said was plagued by serious safety violations.
Friday’s explosion at the Liushenyu pit in Shanxi province was the country’s worst mining disaster in nearly two decades, with 247 workers underground at the time, authorities said.
AFP Journalists on Sunday saw relatives waiting anxiously near a checkpoint blocking the road leading to the mine, hoping to hear from their loved ones.
A man, smoking nervously on a sidewalk, said AFP calls to his brother – father of three – “couldn’t go through” since the explosion.
He said he had “no idea how the accident actually happened” and that their parents were still unaware their eldest son was missing.
“I don’t dare tell them,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Authorities opened an investigation into the explosion, saying preliminary results showed the Tongzhou Group operating the mine had committed “serious illegal violations.”
“Those responsible will be severely punished in accordance with laws and regulations,” officials said in a press conference broadcast on the official channel. Video surveillance.
More than half of the workers working in the shaft on Friday had gone down without being properly registered, state media said, citing the site’s personnel committee.
Minors must normally undergo facial recognition checks or take location cards before disembarking.
“Every effort possible”
A person “responsible” for the company had been “put under control in accordance with the law”, China news agency reported earlier.
Miners working at the Liushenyu pit accused their employer of lack of care, saying AFP they had to buy their safety helmets with their own money.
“From what I have seen, the management (of this company) is the worst,” said a 58-year-old miner from Shandong, who has worked in several coal mines over the past three decades.
Wishing to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, they said AFP Friday, they were working in the morning and were not in the mine at the time of the gas explosion.
“If we had worked a few hours later, it would have been us,” the 58-year-old said.
AFP has contacted Tongzhou Group for comment.
The State Council, China’s cabinet, has ordered a nationwide “severe crackdown on illegal and illegal activities,” including falsification of security data, unclear numbers of underground workers and illegal contracts.
Rescue efforts
Hundreds of rescue workers rushed to the scene after the explosion, and medical teams rushed 128 people to hospital Saturday evening, loaded into ambulances and carried on stretchers.
Helmeted rescuers took turns descending into the shaft overnight to search for the two missing workers, sending a robot to investigate conditions at the mine, state media reported.
“As long as there is hope, we will make every effort,” said a rescuer. China.
It was the worst explosion since 2009, when 108 people were killed in a mine blast in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
Injured survivor Wang Yong recounted Video surveillance “I didn’t hear any sound, but then a cloud of smoke appeared.”
“It smelled of sulfur, like when people lit firecrackers. When the smoke went down, I yelled at people to run.”
He remembers seeing people suffocated by smoke before passing out.
“After more than an hour, I came back alone, then I woke up the person next to me” and I went out, he said. Video surveillance.
Foreign leaders offered their condolences to the victims and their families, with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi saying she was “praying for the rescue of as many people as possible.”
India’s Narendra Modi expressed hope that “the bereaved families find strength in this tragic hour.”
Shanxi, one of China’s poorest provinces, is the center of the country’s mining industry.
Mine safety in China has improved in recent decades, but accidents still occur in an industry where safety protocols are often lax and regulations vague.
In 2023, the collapse of an open-cast coal mine in the northern region of Inner Mongolia killed 53 people.
China is the world’s largest consumer of coal and largest emitter of greenhouse gases, despite installing renewable energy capacity at record speed.
