CHONGQING , China, Nov. 1 (UPI) — Thirteen miners are confirmed dead and rescue operations are underway to find 20 more trapped in a Chongqing, China, coal mine after an explosion.
A gas explosion Monday morning trapped the miners in the privately owned Jinshangou Mine, in China’s Yougchuan district. Two escaped, 13 bodies were found and 20 remain unaccounted for, said Mu Huaping, deputy mayor of Chongqing.
Local media report that more than 400 people are involved in the rescue effort, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. They take turns traveling down a shaft to dig through underground passageways blocked by collapsed tunnels, it said.
The Chinese mining industry has a spotty safety record; 12 miners were killed by a gas leak in April in a mine in northeastern Jinlin province, and four miners were rescued after being trapped underground for 36 days in a January incident in which at least one miner died. Twenty-two miners were killed in a gas explosion in Chongqing’s Wansheng District in May.
Following the explosion in Chongqing, authorities temporarily closed all local coal mines with an annual output of less than 90,000 tons. The license of the Jinshangou mine calls for an annual output of 60,000 tons.
