Four dead, 57 trapped in China coal mine accident

Tweet

Beijing, Nov 4: Four people were killed and 57 trapped following an accident in a coal mine in central China’s Henan province, the authorities said Friday.

The accident happened at around 7.45 p.m. Thursday in Qianqiu Coal Mine in the city of Sanmenxia.

A total of 75 miners were working in a shaft, of whom 14 managed to escape, Xinhua reported.

Four people were confirmed dead and 57 were still stranded as of early Friday morning, the authorities said.

The shaft is about 760-meters deep and a ‘rock burst’ blocked off the shaft at the depth of about 480 meters. A rock burst is a sudden violent fracture of rocks in a mine.

A 2.9-magnitude earthquake hit the city of Sanmenxia at about 7.18 p.m. Thursday, after which the rock burst was reported.

The coal mine, with an annual production capacity of 2.1 million tonnes, belongs to Yima Coal Group, a major state-owned coal enterprise in Henan.

IANS