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Bodies of 7 miners killed in gas leak found

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-06 14:10

URUMQI -- Rescuers on Saturday found bodies of all the seven miners killed in a coal mine gas leak Friday in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Shen Jiming, a spokesman with the rescue team, said that the concentration of the gas was as high as 60 percent under the mine, after the accident happened at around 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Rescuers could only go into the mine after the gas density dropped to three percent Saturday morning.

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There were 88 miners working underground at the Dahuangshan mine, when the accident happened. Eighty-one people escaped.

The coal mine founded in 2007 has an annual production capacity of 90,000 tons. It is under production expansion, which is aimed to lift the capacity to 600,000 tons a year.

The mine is owned by the sixth agriculture division of the Xinjiang Construction Corps, a paramilitary organization in Changji Hui autonomous prefecture, about 100 kilometers from the regional capital Urumqi.