China – Gas Blast At Mine Leaves 10 Dead, 3 Missing

At least 10 people have been killed after a gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s southwestern Guizhou province, according to state media Wednesday.

Three others remain missing after the blast took place at around 7.50 p.m. (1150GMT) Tuesday in Louxia township, Pu’an County.

Xinhua cited a county official as saying that five workers were injured, but are not in critical condition.

While operations are ongoing to rescue the trapped miners, 56 others have been safely removed from the mine.

China — the world’s biggest consumer — produces more than one-third of annual global coal output but accounts for more than two-thirds of mining deaths around the world annually, Mining Technology reported last year.

Last December, a gas explosion at a coal mine in northeastern Heilongjiang province left 10 miners dead, just weeks after fires at two mines left dozens of workers dead in Liaoning and southwestern Guizhou province in two days.

Lax regulation and poor operating procedures make China’s mines the deadliest in the world.