At least 90 people have been killed in a coal mine blast in northern China, according to the country’s state media.
The gas explosion happened at the Liushenyu Coal Mine, run by the Tongzhou Group, in Shanxi Province.
Hundreds of rescuers have been sent to the site. Footage from state media showed paramedics carrying stretchers at the site, with ambulances in the background. More than 100 people are said to have been taken to hospital, with rescue work at the site still under way.
The blast happened at 19:29 local time on Friday (11:29 GMT) at a coal mine in Shanxi, with 247 workers reportedly on duty at the time of the incident.
Following the incident, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for no effort to be spared in efforts to treat the injured and search for survivors.
He also asked the government to investigate the cause of the accident and hold those responsible to account.
Officials running the coal mine have been detained, according to state media. The cause of the gas explosion has not yet been revealed, but state media reported that the levels of carbon monoxide – a highly toxic, odourless gas – in the mine were found to have “exceeded limits”.
China’s Ministry of Emergency Management has sent 345 personnel from six rescue teams to help with the operation.
Shanxi, one of China’s poorer provinces, is known as the country’s coal-mining capital.
In the early 2000s, deadly accidents were common in China’s coal mining industry. Safety standards have been tightened in recent years, but accidents still occur.
In 2023, a collapse at an open-pit coal mine in the northern Inner Mongolia region killed 53 people.
Back in 2009, an explosion at a mine in Heilongjiang province in the north-east killed more than 100.
China is the world’s biggest consumer of coal and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, even as it installs renewable energy capacity at record speed.–BBC
