China, 19 dead in coal mine accident

A coal mine accident in Shanxi province has killed 19 people, confirming China’s mines as among the most dangerous in the world.

Nineteen people died due to an accident on the underground platform of a coal mine in Shuozhou city, in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi, that took place on the night of the 23rd of March. This as much as revealed by the official press agency of the central government, Xinhua. The company controlling the mine, Shanxi Datong Coal Mine Group, confirmed the death toll. The causes of the incident are still unknown, reports Al Jazeera.

The latest fatalities come not even three weeks since twelve miners died due to a gas leak in a mine in northeastern Jilin province on the 6th of March. China’s coal mines are some of the deadliest in the world. Though the number of victims of mining accidents has decreased dramatically in the last decade, these still amounted to over 900 in 2014.

 

coal mine china shanxi
A sorting area at a coal mine in Shanxi, China © Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

 

The country is currently the world’s largest consumer, producer and importer of coal and the hydrocarbon accounted for nearly two thirds of its energy consumption in 2014. The government has vowed to sustain efforts to reduce the number of mining accidents, including prosecuting executives of extractive companies that don’t respect safety standards.

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