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Viewpoints Chinese mine explosion kills hundreds | Chinese mine explosion kills hundreds |
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Hundreds of Chinese are killed after an enormous gas explosion at a coal mine in China yesterday.
Yesterday's explosion at the Sunjiawan mine in the North East of China situated in the Liaoning province killed 203 people and injured 22 others with a further 13 people trapped underground. In response to the country's worst reported mining disaster for decades, president Hu Jintao issued orders "to spare no effort to rescue those stranded in the mine," the official Xinhua news agency reported. Today rescuers faced wet roads caused by overnight snowfall and below freezing temperatures. A member of China's cabinet is spearheading the government team who arrived at the Sunjiawan mine today to help find the missing, treat the injured and organise compensation for the victims' families. Although yesterday's explosion was the worst reported by the Chinese government since the 1949 communist revolution, details of many industrial accidents were not released until the late 1990s, when the government began regularly announcing statistics on mining deaths. China has a history of severe mining disasters and this has continued in recent months despite a countrywide safety campaign. Its mines are by far the world's most dangerous: last year alone there were over 6,000 deaths due to floods, explosions and fires. The blast in the northern province of Shaanxi in November killed 166 miners, and another explosion in October killed 148. |
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