More bad news from the coalfields of China
April 1, 2010 by Ken Ward Jr.Rescue workers take a break at the Wangjialing Coal Mine where they continue their efforts to search for missing miners after water flooded the coal mine shaft in Xiangning township in Shanxi province, about 650 kilometers (400 miles) southwest of Beijing, Wednesday March 31, 2010. Four days after a flood trapped 153 miners in a coal mine, rescue officials in northern China held out hope that some of those stuck underground could be alive even though no contact had been made. (AP Photo)
As rescuers continued to hold out slim hopes for the 153 Chinese coal miners trapped by an underground flood, there’s more bad new today from the coalfields halfway around the world from Appalachia.
Twelve more coal miners were killed and another 32 missing following at a mine in central China, according to a report from Reuters:
Wednesday’s gas explosion in Henan province destroyed the entrance of a mine owned by private Guomin Mining Co in Yichuan county, near the city of Luoyang.
Eight miners and four people on the surface were killed, while 50 miners escaped. About 32 were trapped in the mine, but the explosion caused a two-storey building to cave in, leaving the exact number killed unknown.
China Daily had this to add:
The schedule of miners on duty at the time of the explosion was buried in the debris, delaying the tally of miners underground.
The mine’s legal representative, Wang Guozheng, has disappeared.