16 killed, 11 hurt in coal mine collapse in Urumqi
Print Edition
A CAVE-IN at a coal mine in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Friday left 16 people dead and 11 injured, the safety watchdog said yesterday.
The incident happened at 11:30pm on Friday in the regional capital Urumqi.
A total of 33 workers were in the shaft at the time of the collapse, six of whom were rescued unhurt, said an official with the State Administration of Work Safety.
All of the people injured are in stable condition, the official said, adding that the cause of the cave-in is under investigation.
State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of injured miners sitting up in their hospital beds and describing their experiences to a reporter.
China’s mines are among the most dangerous in the world, though better safety measures have vastly lowered the number of fatalities in recent years.
In June, 22 workers were killed in a coal mine accident in southwest China.
The National Coal Administration reported 1,067 deaths in 604 coal mining accidents last year, a drop of 23 percent from 2012. The figure is also down from more than 6,000 a decade ago, largely due to increased inspections and the closure of small and unregulated mines.
In a bid to eliminate outdated capacity and improve safety, China plans to shut down more than 2,000 small-coal mines by next year.
While the country still produces and consumes almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined, the amount it burned in the first nine months of this year fell 2 percent from the equivalent period of 2013, according to Greenpeace energy analysts in China.
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