China 'investigating reports of 200-death mine disaster'

Chinese officials are checking reports that as many as 200 people have been killed in a mine accident, the Government announced today.

The announcement was a reversal of previous denials of such accidents - and was accompanied with a warning that the punishment for a cover-up would be stiff.

State-run newspapers in Shanghai ran reports for the second consecutive day about an accident at a tin mine in Dachang, a village in the Guangxi region of southern China, on July 16 which they said left more than 70 dead and 130 missing.

The 200 were trapped after miners apparently struck an old well, flooding the tin mine with water, newspapers said.

The central Government’s industrial safety bureau yesterday dismissed similar reports as fabrications.

But a spokesman said today that the bureau was re-checking the reports.

‘‘We still haven’t got reliable information,’’ said the official. ‘‘We are still trying to understand the situation.’’

He said the bureau still had not confirmed that an accident took place.

But local officials would be punished even more severely if it turned out that they had suppressed news.

‘‘If the local Government hides the facts, it will be even more serious,’’ he said.

In March, China’s premier promised severe penalties for officials who failed to ensure public safety following an earlier wave of accidents at mines, factories and schools.

But China has continued to suffer deadly mishaps. Last week, an explosion at a coal mine in a central province left 105 dead or missing, presumed killed.

The People’s Daily the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece today carried an editorial lamenting how local government officials were thwarting Beijing’s repeated efforts to shut down small coal mines.

Small mines are widely seen as being the most accident-prone since they often lack even rudimentary safety devices.

The newspaper said local officials helped mine owners get documents which enabled them to pass inspection, and added that local governments also made false claims about having shut down mines which were still operating, often at night.

Officials ‘‘and mine owners join together to cheat the next level of government, and one level cheats the next’’, it said.

Mine officials and local officials denied again today that there had been an accident at Dachang.