Rescuers have found the bodies of all the 14 miners trapped in
early Saturday morning's coal mine blast in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said local
authorities.
Six other people working at the entrance to the coal mine
received burns to their hands and faces, the coal mine deputy head
said.
Five of them are being treated at the local hospital affiliated
to Xinjiang Medical University, but their lives are not in danger,
a hospital spokesman told Xinhua. The other person suffered only
minor injuries and was not hospitalized.
The accident happened at about 2:35 AM at the coal mine
located at Dianchanggou Township, Miquan City, Hui Autonomous
Prefecture of Changji, said Huang Guoqiang, deputy director of the
Coal Mine Safety Division of the Work Safety Administration under
the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Initially rescuers were unable to enter the mine as the
temperature following the explosion was close to 1,000 degrees
Celsius.
They finally managed to enter the mine via an emergency tunnel
at about 10 AM.
The cause of the blast was not immediately known.
More than 60 rescuers, 34 medical staff from two local hospitals
and six ambulances participated in the rescue operation.
The state-run coal mine, which lies more than 30 km east of the
regional capital of Urumqi, belongs to Xingyaneng Construction and
Chemical Industrial Company owned by the corps. It was built in
1958 and has an annual output capacity of 120,000 tons.
The coal mine was contracted out in March 2000 and employs 113
staff.
Also in Xinjiang, at least 10 people were killed in an oil tank
blast Saturday evening.
The death toll may rise as rescuers are still counting and
confirming the exact casualties, but they have difficulties because
of the poor illumination at the accident site.
The blast happened at around 7:20 PM when workers were
conducting antiseptic treatment to the tank, under construction in
Dushanzi, a district of the city of Karamay, which is about 260
kilometers away from Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, said the local
government source.
The tank belongs to Dushanzi petrochemical company, a branch of
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). It was built to store
crude oil.
(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2006)