8 found alive days after mine collapse
Print Edition
EIGHT people were found alive in a Chinese gypsum mine yesterday, five days after it collapsed in an accident that reportedly prompted its owner to commit suicide.
The mine, in the eastern province of Shandong, caved in on Friday while 29 people were working underground.
One miner was killed and 11 escaped or were rescued soon after, leaving 17 trapped in the shaft.
Signs of life were detected by monitoring machines and rescuers were in contact with eight survivors, Xinhua news agency said.
The workers were weak with hunger but otherwise in good health, CCTV reported. They told rescuers they were in passages underground that were intact.
Plans are being made to bring them to the surface.
The mine owner drowned himself on Sunday while he was helping in rescue efforts.
The cause of the collapse is under investigation.
Four officials in Pingyi, where the mine is located, including the county’s Party chief and head of government, were removed from their posts on Tuesday in the wake of the accident.
The gypsum pit and other mines in its vicinity were ordered to stop production in October by local authorities because of a risk of sinkholes, but it kept operating secretly.
Accidents linked to lax industrial safety enforcement have seen hundreds of people killed in China this year, including this month’s landslide in the southern commercial hub of Shenzhen and chemical blasts in the industrial city of Tianjin in August.
China is the world’s largest coal producer and official data showed colliery accidents killed 931 people last year.
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