NEWS: UPDATE: Chinese Official - 141 Missing Coal Miners Persumed Dead, page 1

An explosion in a coal mine in China has at least 187 miners trapped. Eighty miners have escaped, and it is unclear at this time is the trapped miners are still alive. Reports indicate that there is no communication with the trapped miners and thick smoke continues to bellow out of the shafts. This comes on the heels of other mine accidents. Deaths of coal miners in China is actually down, but still high by Western standards with 4153 fatalities in the first 9 months of the year.

UPDATE: 11/29/04 141 Missing Coal Miners Persumed Dead

Chinese officials have issued a statement that there is little hope that any of the trapped miners are still alive and are presumed dead.

CHENJIASHAN MINE, China (AFP) - The 141 miners trapped inside a north China mine following a gas explosion have no chance of survival and are presumed dead, a local communist party secretary has told AFP.
They have no chance of surviving at all, not even a one percent chance," said Yan Mangxue, communist party secretary for Yaoyu village, where 14 of the trapped miners are from.

Yan was citing information given to all local government and mining officials during a meeting Sunday night. "Imagine a gas poisoning inside your home, you would die in no more than half an hour. Inside a mine, with no air ventilation, it's much faster. In five minutes you would lose your life," Yan said.

Trapped

story.news.yahoo.com
BEIJING (Reuters) - A gas explosion tore through a coal mine in northern China on Sunday, trapping at least 187 miners in what could be the worst disaster to hit the world's biggest and most dangerous mining industry in years.

Only 80 miners managed to escape from the Chenjiashan Coalmine in Shaanxi province after Sunday morning's explosion, the official Xinhua news agency said. Around 270 had been in the mine at the time and 187 were trapped, it said.

The People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, said 273 miners were in the mine at the time of the blast and 85 made it out, leaving 188 still trapped.

"At about 7:30 in the morning (2330 GMT Friday), workers at the mouth of the Chenjiashan coal mine discovered thick smoke pouring out of ventilation shafts, and that communication with the inside of the mine had been cut off," People's Daily said on its Web site.

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Coal supplies a big percentage of Chinas energy needs. However, it seems you have a better chance being a crab fisherman in Alaska that a Chinese coal miner. Its pretty clear by the numbers that a serious review of safety procedures need to be conducted otherwise these reports may become all too common.

[edit on 11/29/04 by FredT]

[edit on 11/29/04 by FredT]