Flood and blast kill 64 in Chinese coal mines

An underground explosion and flooding from a rain-swollen river have left at least 64 Chinese workers dead and seven others missing in separate disasters, state media reported today.

The blast occurred on Saturday in the Linjiazhuang Coal Mine in Jinzhong, a city in Shanxi province, China’s main coal-producing region, state television said. The official Xinhua News Agency said investigators blamed the blast on airborne coal dust that caught fire.

The mine manager was in police custody, China Central Television said.

Xinhua said 64 miners were in the mine at the time of the explosion and six escaped. Only one miner was rescued alive and he was suffering from carbon-monoxide poisoning, it said. Seven others were still missing, CCTV said.

Also on Saturday, the Leishui River in Hunan province overflowed after rainstorms, flooding the Shenjiawen Colliery and killing one miner and seven technicians who were in the pit for emergency rescue operations, Xinhua said.

Six other workers died after being “trapped in collapsed houses and flooded pump rooms,” it said.

Rescuers had to give up their efforts yesterday after the flooding filled the entire pit, it said.

China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest, with more than 5,000 deaths every year in explosions, fires and other disasters.

Last month, a flood in another coal mine in Shanxi killed 56 miners.