XINMI, China (AFP) - The death toll from a devastating coal mine gas explosion in central China's Henan province rose to 66 as hopes of finding survivors among a further 82 trapped workers faded.
The government also revealed Friday that two other mining accidents had occurred elsewhere in the country on the day of the explosion -- potentially bringing Wednesday's total death toll to 190 miners, making it the deadliest day in China's mining sector in years.
In Henan, four more bodies were pulled from the collapsed Daping mine Friday, pushing the death toll to 66 with 82 missing, Xinhua news agency said.
"At present, the chance of survival is slim, but if there's any chance, we will do our best," Song Guangtai, deputy director of the Henan coal mine safety bureau, told AFP from the blast site.
More than 1,000 rescuers dispatched to the site were Friday battling to retrieve victims.
Collapsed tunnels hampered rescue operations, with rescuers having to dig through some 150 meters of debris.
Although the gas density had been reduced and a passageway into the mine had been repaired to speed up the flow of rescuers and vehicles, gas levels in some areas remained dangerously high, raising fears of another explosion, local officials said.
Nearly 450 workers were packed into the mine in Wuzhuang village near Xinmi city late Wednesday when within two and half minutes, the gas density soared from 1.49 percent to 40 percent, causing a series of explosions to rip through the mine, state media said.
At 16 percent gas density, explosions can occur, miners told AFP.
"When workers above ground received a phone call of an evacuation, the explosion occurred. Everything happened too fast," Wu Taishan, a worker was quoted in the Beijing News saying.
Some 300 miners escaped.
Wives and mothers of those who did not make it out alive have been weeping outside the mine while the menfolk stand by stoically awaiting news.
Some hope to learn the fate of not only one but several family members. Many of the miners were related -- brothers, fathers and sons or uncles and nephews.
A retired longtime local miner surnamed Li, awaiting news of his trapped nephew outside the mine's gates, said in recent years the mine, like others in China, had gone into overdrive to feed the country's growing hunger for cheap energy, disregarding safety and environmental concerns.
"When it comes to producing more coal and making more money, safety conditions almost always become secondary concerns," said Li. "There was a lot of talk in the mine that the mine boss was no good."
The Henan government on Friday ordered the mine's owner Zhengzhou Coal Industry Group, a large state-owned company headquartered in Xinmi with annual coal production of 6.6 million tons, to halt production in all of its coal mines for safety inspections, Xinhua said.
The move will affect coal supplies to about a dozen thermal power plants.
Other coal mines in the province were also asked to improve safety to avoid similar incidents.
Highlighting the danger in China's mines, the State Administration for Work Safety revealed Friday on its website that two other coal mine accidents occurred on the same day as the Henan blast, leaving 42 people dead or missing.
In one accident, in southwestern Chongqing municipality, 12 workers were killed and one missing after a gas leak.
While in northern Hebei province, 29 miners were missing after a mine flooded with 63 workers inside. Twenty-four escaped and another ten were rescued.
Official figures indicate more than 7,000 workers die each year in China's coal mines, mainly from poor control of gas density, flooding and lack of safety awareness. However, Hong Kong-based human rights group China Labor Bulletin puts the number of industry deaths at around 20,000.
10/22/2004 - 12:16 GMT - AFP