Chinese authorities have revised the death toll from a coal mine gas explosion in northern Shanxi province to 82, down from an initial figure of at least 90, citing confusion in the immediate aftermath of the country’s deadliest mining disaster in 17 years.
The explosion occurred late on Friday at the Liushenyu coal mine in Qinyuan county, Shanxi province. Even with the revised figure, the accident remains China’s worst mining disaster since 2009, when 108 people were killed in a gas explosion at the Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang province.
Local officials said the earlier casualty figure reported by state media was incorrect because of difficulties accounting for workers amid the chaos following the blast.”After the incident the scene was chaotic, the company’s count of the number of workers was not clear, which led to the initial inaccurate number,” Qinyuan county chief Guo Xiaofang told a late-night news conference.
A total of 247 workers were underground when the explosion occurred. Officials said 82 people were confirmed dead, 128 were injured and hospitalised, 35 escaped unhurt, while two remained missing. Authorities said all four mines operated by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group, which owns the Liushenyu mine, had been shut down and company executives detained pending an investigation.
In a front-page editorial on Sunday, the state-run People’s Daily called for stronger workplace safety measures and urged authorities to “completely reverse the tendency to prioritise development over safety.”
President Xi Jinping on Saturday ordered authorities to spare no effort in treating the injured, continue search and rescue operations and conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident.
The Liushenyu mine has an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of coal. China mined 4.83 billion tonnes of coal last year, with the fuel remaining the backbone of the country’s power sector.