North China coal mine blast kills at least 68

Coal dust caught fire in a mine in northeast China, sparking an explosion that killed at least 68 people and left 79 missing, the government said today, as the country’s leadership called for tighter work safety measures.

Some 221 miners were underground when the blast occurred late yesterday at the Dongfeng Coal mine in Qitaihe, a city in Heilongjiang province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Seventy-four miners had been rescued by today, it said.

China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest. Fires, floods, cave-ins and explosions are reported almost daily, and thousands of miners are killed every year despite the government’s repeated attempts to improve safety and upgrade equipment.

Efforts to shut down dangerous mines have been complicated by the country’s soaring demands for power to drive its booming economy.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao urged officials to curb the “possible occurrence of big safety accidents which claim huge casualties and property losses”, the state-run newspaper China Daily said today.

The leaders called for enforcement of stricter inspections and punishments, it said.

Underscoring the dangers, 18 miners missing since another coal mine disaster last week in north China’s Hebei province were confirmed dead today, Xinhua said. The mine’s owners fled after it flooded on Thursday, complicating search efforts, the agency said.

At the site of the blast in Heilongjiang, a man who answered the telephone at the coal mine said Li Yizhong, minister of the State Administration of Work Safety, was meeting with mine officials but refused to give any details and hung up.

Xinhua said a 269-member rescue team was searching for the trapped miners and Li told them to “spare no efforts” to save the workers.

State television showed footage of ambulances rushing to the scene and rescuers escorting a survivor from the mine, his face and clothes covered in soot.

The explosion knocked out all ventilation systems, Xinhua said, but they were working again today.

The mine is owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Group Co., a conglomerate of four state-owned coal businesses in the province, Xinhua said.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, has made safety overhauls at coal mines, chemical plants and fireworks factories a priority over the next few months, the China Daily said.

Running water in Heilongjiang’s capital, Harbin, was restored yesterday after a five-day shutdown blamed on a November 13 explosion at a chemical plant that spewed toxins into the river.

Officials have been criticised for their slow response, and for allowing the construction of a facility handling such dangerous materials near a key water source.

The government has promised to investigate the spill and punish any officials found responsible.