82 dead in China’s most severe coal mine disaster in years — regulators flagged the risk two years prior

(SeaPRwire) –   A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s northern Shanxi province resulted in the deaths of at least 82 individuals, local officials confirmed Saturday, marking the nation’s deadliest mining incident in recent memory.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the catastrophe at Changzhi city’s Liushenyu coal mine occurred on Friday evening.

During a news conference held late Saturday, local authorities announced 82 fatalities and over 120 hospitalizations, with two people still unaccounted for. This revised death toll is lower than the 90 initially reported by state broadcaster CCTV.

Officials described the scene at the coal mine as “chaotic” immediately following the accident, noting that figures provided at that time were preliminary and not definitive.

Local officials stated that the explosion is under investigation, adding that the mine’s operator committed “serious violations” of the law. They did not specify the nature of these violations.

Earlier on Saturday, Xinhua reported that rescue efforts were ongoing a day after the incident, with hundreds of rescuers and medical personnel dispatched to the site. According to CCTV, many of the injured suffered from toxic gas exposure.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for an exhaustive effort to locate the missing, Xinhua reported. Xi also demanded a “thorough investigation” and accountability “in accordance with the law.”

Xinhua later reported, citing the local emergency management bureau, that those responsible for the company involved in the mine accident have been “placed under control.”

Following Xi’s remarks, a separate Xinhua report indicated that an investigation team from China’s powerful State Council, equivalent to the country’s Cabinet, would conduct a “rigorous and uncompromising” probe into the deadly explosion.

Wang Yong, one of the hospitalized miners, recounted in a CCTV video interview that he smelled sulfur “like firecrackers” and saw smoke.

“I told people to run,” he stated. “As I ran, I saw people being choked by the smoke. And then I blacked out.”

The state broadcaster also reported that the blueprints provided by the coal mine did not correspond to the actual layout, hindering rescue efforts.

The coal mine, operated by the Shanxi Tongzhou Coal & Coke Group with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons, was placed on a national list of disaster-prone coal mines by China’s National Mine Safety Administration in 2024 due to its “high gas content.”

Shanxi province is recognized as China’s primary coal mining region. With a land area larger than Greece and a population of approximately 34 million, the province’s hundreds of thousands of miners extracted 1.3 billion tons of coal last year, accounting for nearly a third of China’s total output.

In China, coal remains a crucial energy source due to its lower cost and high availability, even as the country accelerates its transition toward green energy. Mining disasters have been frequent, despite authorities implementing measures to enhance safety over the past years.

Previous incidents include a February 2023 collapse at an open-pit mine in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region that killed 53 people. In November 2009, an explosion at a mine in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province claimed 108 lives, according to state media.