Over 240 miners were underground at the Liushenyu coal mine in Shanxi Province when the accident occurred on Friday night.
The death toll from a gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China’s Shanxi province has jumped to 90, state media reported on Saturday (May 23), in the country’s deadliest coal mine disaster in over a decade.
The blast occurred at 7.29pm on Friday at the Liushenyu coal mine in Shanxi province.
A total of 247 workers were underground at the time, most of whom were brought to the surface by Saturday morning, Xinhua said.
Nine people remain missing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called on authorities to “spare no effort” in treating the injured and conducting search and rescue operations, while ordering a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident.
Premier Li Qiang echoed the instructions, calling for timely and accurate release of information and rigorous accountability.
The mine is operated by Shanxi Tongzhou Group Liushenyu Coal Industry, which was established in 2010 and is controlled by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group, according to corporate database Qichacha.
Rescue operations were ongoing and the cause of the accident was under investigation, according to the local emergency management authority in Qinyuan. Shanxi is China’s coal-mining heartland.
Executives of the company responsible for the mine have been detained, Xinhua reported.
Footage published by state broadcaster CCTV showed helmeted rescuers carrying stretchers at the site, with ambulances visible in the background.
123 others were sent to the hospital for treatment, four of whom were in critical or severe condition, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Of those sent for treatment, 33 had returned home as of 2:00 pm on Saturday, it added.
A total of 755 emergency and medical personnel were dispatched to the site, with rescue efforts still ongoing Saturday afternoon, CCTV added.
“SULPHUR SMELL”
Survivor and injured miner Wang Yong told CCTV there was a “puff of smoke” and he smelled sulphur.
He recalled seeing people choked by the smoke before he fainted.
“I lay down for about an hour and woke up by myself. I called the people next to me and got out of the mine together,” Wang said, according to CCTV.
The death toll was a sharp rise from the eight fatalities reported on Saturday morning. Xinhua said in an earlier report that dozens were trapped underground after levels of carbon monoxide were found to have “exceeded limits”. Some of those trapped underground were in “critical condition”, the report said.
China has significantly reduced coal mine fatalities – often caused by gas explosions or flooding – since the early 2000s through more stringent regulations and safer practices. The Liushenyu incident, though, was one of the deadliest reported in China in the past decade.
According to official data from the National Mine Safety Administration (NMSA), over 3,000 mine accidents occurred in China between 2010 and 2025.
Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-coal-mine-blast-accident-shanxi-6136551
