Coal mine explosion in China kills 90 people

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A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s northern Shanxi province killed at least 90 people, state media said on Saturday, in the country’s deadliest mining accident in recent years. Official news agency Xinhua said the accident at Changzhi city’s Liushenyu coal mine happened on Friday evening. Around 247 workers were on duty at the time. Nine miners were still unaccounted for as of Saturday afternoon, Xinhua said, and more than 120 people were hospitalized. The cause of the explosion was under investigation, Xinhua reported, and rescue work is pressing on with hundreds of rescuers and medical personnel sent to the site. Among the injured, many were hurt by toxic gas, according to state media CCTV. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for an all-out effort to rescue the missing, reported Xinhua. Xi also called for the “proper handling of the aftermath of the accident and urged a thorough investigation into its cause, with accountability pursued in accordance wi...
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Around 30 people killed in Congo copper mine incident, officials say

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Around 30 people were killed at a semi-industrial copper mine in southeastern Congo on Saturday after a bridge collapsed, the country’s artisanal mining agency said.

An agency official told Reuters there were 49 deaths and 20 people had been taken to hospital in a critical condition as a result of the incident, which occurred on Saturday at the Kalando mining site in Lualaba province.

Artisanal mining employs an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people in Congo and supports more than 10 million indirectly.

The collapse was “caused by panic, reportedly triggered by gunfire from military personnel securing the site,” said Congo’s Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Support and Guidance Service, known by its French acronym SAEMAPE.

Miners then “piled on top of each other, causing injuries and death”, SAEMAPE added in a statement on Sunday.

The Initiative for the Protection of Human Rights called for an independent investigation into the military’s role in the deaths, citing reports of clashes between miners and soldiers.

A military spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Roy Kaumba, the provincial interior minister, said in a televised statement that 32 people had been confirmed dead.

Mining accidents are common in unregulated artisanal mines, with dozens of deaths every year at sites where often ill-equipped diggers burrow deep underground.

SOURCE: REUTERS AND AGENCIES



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/eiW7wFY

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