China shuts mine, detains chief after blast
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-12-02 11:41

Chinese authorities have shut down a state-owned colliery in northeast China and detained top officials after 166 miners died in an explosion, Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, rescuers set out for a rescue operation at the Dongfeng Coal Mine in Qitaihe, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005. An explosion Sunday at the Dongfeng Coal Mine killed at least 166 workers, and rescuers were still combing the debris for more bodies, media reports said. [Xinhua]

State-owned Dongfeng coal mine run by a branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining (Group) Co. Ltd., a conglomerate of four major coal firms in northeastern Heilongjiang province, was hit by a blast late on Sunday.

The coal mine operator and the party chief of the Dongfeng coal mine were removed from posts and detained by police for investigation, the Beijing News said. The general manager of Longmei Group's Qitaihe branch was also dismissed, Xinhua News Agency said.

The death toll includes 162 miners underground and two women who had been working in a generator room at ground level. Seven others were still missing.

Xinhua said there were 242 miners underground rather than the previously reported figure of 221.

"Due to the very disorderly management of the Dongfeng coal mine, the actual number of miners underground is very different from that reported," the Beijing News quoted a coal mine safety supervision spokesman as saying.

The Chinese government has pledged 3 billion yuan to improve safety and it has arrested mine owners who run illegal pits or flout regulations.

It has also launched a drive to force officials to withdraw investment from coal mines, a practice seen as a conflict of interest for those whose job is to police their safety. Much of the blame has been placed on small, unsafe coal mines.

But the biggest accidents this year, including Sunday's explosion and one in February in Liaoning province that killed 214, were at state-run mines, which could be under pressure to produce even more as smaller mines are shut.

Accidents and disasters cause more than 1 million casualties annually in China. They also bring economic losses of 650 billion yuan each year, equivalent to 6 percent of gross domestic product, according to the Ministry of Public Security.