The article below is taken from the China Daily website (www.chinadaily.com.cn [2]) and updates the number of people who are believed to have died in the explosions.

Please see China Labour Bulletin’s Statement on the disaster [3]which gives background and details which suggest that the accident was both avoidable and caused by negligence.

For details of conversations with families of victims who describe how miners were sent back down into the mine shortly before the explosion after they had tried to escape the toxic fumes please see our reports [4]

Blast death toll rises to 64


27 March 2003

"My heart strings are wrenched every time I come face to face with the bodies of dead miners, even though I have been retrieving victims from coal mines for 18 years," said Du Longsheng.

Du, in his 40s, is one of the 150-member emergency squad, organized soon after the devastating coal mine gas explosion occurred on Saturday in Xiaoyi, a city in Shanxi Province, North China.

Du and his colleagues, who are mainly from local mine authorities, have spent most of the past five days 480 metres down the coal mine.

"It is probably the most serious mine accident since 1992 when an explosion in Linfen killed 150 people," Du recalled.

Four more bodies have been recovered from the debris of the coal mine, bringing the death toll from the weekend gas explosion to 64.

Eight miners are still missing, according to rescuers, who have been working around the clock since the blast occurred in the Mengnanzhuang mine in Xiaoyi of Luliang Prefecture early Saturday afternoon.

The digging and rescue work is expected to continue for a week as there is no electricity in the mine shaft. As a result, ventilation equipment is unable to operate properly, said Du.

In addition to looking for victims' bodies, another major task for Du and his fellows is monitoring the levels of gas and carbon monoxide, as well as the temperature in the mine lanes.

The concentration of carbon monoxide has reached 3 per cent in the lanes for the 300-metre collapse, while the normal figure should be below 0.0024 per cent.

Xiaoyi has sent 110 officials to deal with the aftermath of the accident.

[http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2003-03-27/109657.html] [5]