CHINA: Nearly 150 Chinese miners are feared dead in a huge underground blast at a state-owned coal mine, as the country's worst mining disaster in years propelled safety to the top of the political agenda.
China's coal mines are the most deadliest in the world, with over 4,000 deaths in mining accidents last year, and newspapers ran front-page photos of rescuers carrying out bodies wrapped in green canvas and frantic relatives. In a touch of bitter irony, a banner hung across the mine entrance read in Chinese characters: "Safety is the utmost priority."
Around 1,000 rescuers were fighting to reach scores of miners still trapped underground at the Daping mine, which is located in the Songshan Mountains, about 25 miles southwest of the major industrial city of Zhengzhou.
The death toll was 64 yesterday, according to state media, and the government said the chances of finding 84 missing miners alive were slim. The blast ripped through the mine when 446 miners were at work. Of these 298 escaped alive. Wednesday was a sad day for the Chinese mining industry, with three mining disasters in all. In the northern province of Hebei 29 workers were missing at a pit after it was flooded, while a gas leak in a mine in the Chongqing municipality killed 12 people.
The blast made front-page news in the state media, which is traditionally taciturn on covering disasters but has shown much greater openness lately on reporting issues like the SARS virus and other catastrophes.
President Hu Jintao called for answers after the tragedy in a front-page article in the People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, and ordered officials to use "every possible means" to find the missing miners.
The government has been making efforts to improve safety and accountability - six people were sentenced to up to six years in prison over China's worst ever industrial accident, a gas leak which killed 243 people in Chongqing municipality in December.
China's burgeoning economy has seen the coal mining industry expand without regulation, feeding the country's growing need for fuel.