Authorities in China were still searching for two missing people and investigating a coal mine operator on Sunday, after a gas explosion in a mine shaft on Friday killed at least 82 people.
A total of 247 miners were reportedly underground at the time of the explosion at the Liushenyu coal mine in the northern inland province of Shanxi, of whom 128 were later taken to hospital.
While rescue teams continued to search for the two missing men with the help of a robot that was sent into the shaft to test conditions, local authorities accused the mine operator of “serious violations” of safety rules.
A spokesperson would not say what exactly the violations were, but information reported by local media suggests multiple cases of operational negligence.
China coal mines: ‘chaotic’ scene and ‘misinformation’
Some miners told the AFP news agency they had to buy protective helmets with their own money, while another report showed more than half of the miners entered mine shafts on Friday without being properly registered with facial recognition or issued with the requisite tracking devices.
Authorities blamed the early deaths of 90 on “chaotic” scenes and “incorrect” information provided by the mine operator, which had to be revised downwards, while state broadcaster CCTV reported that blueprints provided by the coal mine did not match the actual layout, hampering rescue efforts.
State media outlet Xinhua said a “responsible individual” had been “placed under control”, while the government in Beijing ordered a nationwide crackdown on “illegal and illicit activities”, such as falsification of security data, inaccurate tracking of miners’ activities and illegal commissioning processes.
Xi Jinping calls for ‘thorough’ investigation
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a thorough investigation, while a commentary in the official People’s Daily newspaper on Sunday called on all sectors and departments to learn from the accident and “always keep safety in mind.”
Shanxi province is one of China’s poorer regions and is the center of the country’s coal production. Despite the rapid expansion of renewable energy, coal consumption in China remains the highest in the world.
Mining safety in the country has improved over the past few decades; Still, accidents do happen. In 2009, an explosion at a mine in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang killed 108 people.
Edited by: Jennifer Cimino Gonzalez