China coal mine blast: Over 90 killed in Shanxi; Xi Jinping calls for urgent rescue
The death toll rose sharply on Saturday as Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for an investigation and stressed that "those responsible must be held to account."
This photo released by Xinhua News Agency, shows a scene at the rescue site of the Liushenyu coal mine in Changzhi city, China's Shanxi Province. (Photo: AP)
At least 90 people were killed and others remain trapped after a gas explosion Friday evening at the Liushenyu coal mine in Changzhi city, in China’s northern Shanxi province, state media reported Saturday.
According to Xinhua, 247 workers were underground when the blast occurred. As of early Saturday, 201 had been rescued and brought to the surface. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for an all-out effort to rescue the missing and an investigation of the accident’s cause while holding those responsible accountable, according to Xinhua.
VIDEO | Over 80 people have reportedly been killed in a gas explosion in a coal mine in China. The gas explosion occurred at the Liushenyu coal mine, Qinyuan County in north China's Shanxi Province on Friday evening. Rescue efforts are underway.#ChinaNews
Shanxi province is known as China’s main coal mining province. With a size larger than Greece and a population of around 34 million, the province’s hundreds of thousands of miners dug 1.3 billion tons (1.17 billion metric tons) of coal last year, or almost a third of China’s total.
China has significantly reduced coal mine fatalities – often caused by gas explosions or flooding – since the early 2000s through more stringent regulations and safer practices. The Liushenyu incident, though, was one of the deadliest reported in China in the past decade.
Executives of the company responsible for the mine have been detained, Xinhua reported. Earlier Xinhua had reported only eight dead, with more than 200 people safely brought to the surface. It did not explain the jump in the death toll.
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This photo released by Xinhua News Agency, shows a scene at the rescue site of the Liushenyu coal mine in Changzhi city, China's Shanxi Province. (Photo: AP) 
