China coal mine gas blast kills 33

A gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China killed 33 people, in the latest disaster to strike the country’s accident-prone mining industry, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today.

The blast occurred at 4.20pm (8.20am Irish time) yesterday in Yangquan, a city in the northern province of Shanxi, the report said. Twenty-eight miners were killed in the explosion at the Daxian Sankeng Colliery, as were five people who descended into the pit trying to rescue them.