Mine flood death toll rises to 23
26/03/2006 - 09:54:31The death toll in a flood in a northern Chinese coal mine has risen to 23 and five miners remained missing, the government said.
The flood swept through the Fanjiashan Coal Mine in Linxin, a county in Shanxi province, on March 18 as 58 miners were working, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Thirty managed to escape, it said.
Initial reports said one person had been killed and 27 were trapped.
Large amounts of silt and water in the shaft were hampering rescue efforts and it would take at least two more days to reach the missing five, Xinhua said.
The cause of the accident was under investigation, it said.
Each year, thousands of workers are killed in China’s mines, the world’s most deadly.
Fires, floods and explosions occur almost daily despite repeated safety crackdowns, mostly because of lax safety rules and poor equipment.
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