Gas explosion kills 15, injures five miners
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-16 22:14

A gas explosion killed 15 and injured five coal miners in Shaanxi Province.

Seven people are still missing after the Tuesday incident in Huangling County in this Northwest China province, said local sources.

The explosion happened deep within the No 1 Coal Mine owned by the Huangling Mine Company Ltd at about 4:50 pm when 85 miners were working there, a company staff member said.

Rescuers pulled out 65 miners, five of them injured. The injured are in stable condition in hospital.

Of the 15 killed, two were members of the rescue team. They were killed by noxious gas in the tunnel, the company said.

"We have to draw out all noxious gas first and that takes some hours," the staff member said Wednesday.

He said there was little hope of finding the missing workers alive, but efforts would continue.

The mine is some 200 kilometres north of Xi'an, the provincial capital. It is one of four coal mine construction projects planned by the central government. The mine was officially put into operation in 2001 and its capacity is 6 million tons annually, the staff member said.