8 miners freed but hunt for another 8 continues
Source: Agencies |
July 9, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Eight miners were rescued yesterday after being trapped underground for nearly four days in a flooded coal mine, while seven workers in another mine died in a gas explosion.
China Central Television said the eight miners were lifted to the ground in Leiyang, a city in Hunan Province. Eight other miners were believed to be still alive underground.
CCTV showed rescuers in orange suits and helmets lifting the workers on stretchers while a crowd of miners and others applauded.
The survivors were placed in ambulances where nurses treated them before they were driven to hospital.
At another coal mine in the same province, a gas explosion killed seven workers yesterday morning in the city of Lianyuan, Xinhua news agency said. Thirty-nine other workers managed to escape and an investigation into the cause of the accident is under way, the report said.
Phone calls to the Lianyuan city work safety bureau rang unanswered yesterday.
The Leiyang mine flood trapped 16 workers at about 6pm last Wednesday and 11 of them were confirmed to be alive on Saturday.
Many of the miners were injured, Xinhua said. It said the flood in the mine occurred when 40 miners were working underground, and two dozen escaped.
The first three of the eight workers were rescued at about 1:40am and nine hours later a fourth miner was pulled out of the Qielichong colliery, Xinhua said.
At 6:20pm another four were reached, the rescue headquarters said in a statement.
On standby for rescue operations at the scene were 90 professionals and more than 1,000 people, Xinhua said.
Managers of the mine failed to report the accident in the required time, causing rescue efforts to be delayed by at least 12 hours, Xinhua said.
Mine managers often attempt to avoid punishment by either rescuing miners themselves or covering up accidents.
The mine owner is under police custody.
Mine floods usually occur when miners drill through to abandoned shafts that have been allowed to fill with water.
Along with gas explosions and cave-ins, they make China's coal mines the world's deadliest, although the death rate has fallen.
Safety improvements have cut annual fatalities by about a third from a high of 6,995 in 2002.
That improvement has come despite a tripling in the output of coal, which generates most of China's electrical power.
Technological advances, better training and the closing of the most dangerous, small-scale mining operations have also made rescues more successful.
In April 2010, 115 miners were pulled from a flooded mine in the northern province of Shanxi after more than a week underground.
They survived by eating sawdust, tree bark, paper and even coal. Some strapped themselves to the walls of the shafts with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept.
China Central Television said the eight miners were lifted to the ground in Leiyang, a city in Hunan Province. Eight other miners were believed to be still alive underground.
CCTV showed rescuers in orange suits and helmets lifting the workers on stretchers while a crowd of miners and others applauded.
The survivors were placed in ambulances where nurses treated them before they were driven to hospital.
At another coal mine in the same province, a gas explosion killed seven workers yesterday morning in the city of Lianyuan, Xinhua news agency said. Thirty-nine other workers managed to escape and an investigation into the cause of the accident is under way, the report said.
Phone calls to the Lianyuan city work safety bureau rang unanswered yesterday.
The Leiyang mine flood trapped 16 workers at about 6pm last Wednesday and 11 of them were confirmed to be alive on Saturday.
Many of the miners were injured, Xinhua said. It said the flood in the mine occurred when 40 miners were working underground, and two dozen escaped.
The first three of the eight workers were rescued at about 1:40am and nine hours later a fourth miner was pulled out of the Qielichong colliery, Xinhua said.
At 6:20pm another four were reached, the rescue headquarters said in a statement.
On standby for rescue operations at the scene were 90 professionals and more than 1,000 people, Xinhua said.
Managers of the mine failed to report the accident in the required time, causing rescue efforts to be delayed by at least 12 hours, Xinhua said.
Mine managers often attempt to avoid punishment by either rescuing miners themselves or covering up accidents.
The mine owner is under police custody.
Mine floods usually occur when miners drill through to abandoned shafts that have been allowed to fill with water.
Along with gas explosions and cave-ins, they make China's coal mines the world's deadliest, although the death rate has fallen.
Safety improvements have cut annual fatalities by about a third from a high of 6,995 in 2002.
That improvement has come despite a tripling in the output of coal, which generates most of China's electrical power.
Technological advances, better training and the closing of the most dangerous, small-scale mining operations have also made rescues more successful.
In April 2010, 115 miners were pulled from a flooded mine in the northern province of Shanxi after more than a week underground.
They survived by eating sawdust, tree bark, paper and even coal. Some strapped themselves to the walls of the shafts with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept.
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