Beijing - At least eight people are feared dead in the latest mining disaster to hit China, Miriam Donohoe reports. The eight, six miners and two young boys, were sleeping in a hut which sank into the ground when a pit caved in at the state run Taershan Iron Mine in the northern province of Shanxi. It was not clear whether there were any miners in the pit at the time.
The two boys, aged nine and 12, were the son and nephew of a local mine operator and were spending their holidays by the mine, according to reports. Last month, at least 80 miners were killed when a tin mine in Nandan County in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region flooded.