Death toll rises to 64 in Chinese mine explosion

The death toll in a gas explosion in a Chinese coal mine rose to 64 today, and chances 84 missing miners might still be alive were “quite slim,” the government said.

Wednesday’s disaster in the central province of Henan was the deadliest this year in China’s accident-plagued mines. Newspapers carried front-page photos of anxious relatives waiting outside the mine as haggard rescuers carried out bodies wrapped in green canvas.