Beijing, March 28: At Least 123 workers are trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern China.
A total of 261 people were working in the Wangjialing mine in Shanxi province when underground water gushed in.
Only 138 managed to escape, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
China’s coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety standards often ignored in the quest for profits and the drive to meet surging demand for coal – the source of about 70 per cent of China’s energy.
An official at the coal mine safety administration in Linfen city, where the mine is located, confirmed the accident and that men were trapped, but declined to provide any further details.
The Wangjialing mine belongs to the state-owned Huajin Coking Coal company, the Xinhua report said.
It was approved in July 2005 by China’s State Council. “The company will build a first-class, safe and efficient, large modern mine,” Huajin said on its website.
In one of the worst accidents in recent years, 108 miners were killed last November when an explosion ripped through a coal mine in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
And earlier this month 25 people died in a coal mine fire in central China’s Henan province.
According to official statistics, a total of 2631 miners – about seven a day – were killed last year. This number was down 584 from 2008, which officials attribute to improved safety measures.
As part of its campaign to increase safety standards, the government levied heavy fines and implemented region-wide mining shutdowns following serious accidents.
But the action resulted in the under-reporting of accidents as mine bosses seek to limit their economic losses, labor rights groups maintain.
Fatalities at China’s coal mines peaked in 2002 when 6995 deaths were recorded.
—Agencies