HARBIN, China
Rescuers working in cold and darkness tried to reach 66 people believed trapped a third of a mile underground after a huge gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in northern China yesterday, killing at least 87people.
The blast at the state-run Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang province near the border with Russia is the latest to hit China's mining industry, the world's deadliest. Authorities say that safety is improving, but hundreds still die in major accidents each year.
Large state-owned coal mines such as Xinxing are generally considered safer than smaller, private ones that account for the bulk of production. The blast underscores the difficulties that the government faces in trying to improve safety while maintaining output.
Coal is vital to the vast population and booming economy, as China uses it to generate about three-quarters of its electricity.
Television footage showed smoke billowing out of the mine after the explosion, caused by a build-up of gas that also leveled a building nearby.
About 528 miners were underground at the time. The State Administration of Work Safety said that 389 of them managed to escape. Of the rest, 31 miners were rescued, including six now in serious condition in a hospital, China Central Television reported. About 42 bodies have been recovered, and rescuers were searching for 66 others still believed trapped in the mine.
The government has been cracking down on unregulated mining operations, which account for almost 80 percent of the country's 16,000 mines. It says that the closure of about 1,000 dangerous small mines last year has helped cut fatalities. The average number of miners killed has halved, to about six a day, in the first six months of this year, the government has said.
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