China Mine Blast Kills at Least 46 Miners

A coal mine explosion has killed at least 46 workers in China s central province of Henan, making the accident the deadliest this year.

Twenty-six miners have been rescued from the pit at Pingdingshan city, the official Xinhua News Agency said today. Preliminary checks showed 72 workers were in the mine when the accident occurred this morning, it said.

China has the world s worst coal-mine safety record, with an average of about seven deaths each day in accidents last year. That compares with 18 deaths for the entire year in the U.S. The worst Chinese coal-mine disaster in two years in November killed more than 100 after an explosion in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. In March, a coal mine flood in the northern Shanxi province trapped 153 workers, killing 38.

The blast in Henan province occurred at 1:40 a.m. local time after an explosives cache went off, the State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on its website earlier. At least 58 miners were trapped, it said.

Two rescue teams are working in the shaft, the administration said. The mine recently expanded capacity by 50 percent to 90,000 metric tons a year, it said. Calls to the local safety bureau in Pingdingshan weren t immediately answered.

Deaths from coal-mine accidents in China increased in the first quarter to 592 from 509 fatalities a year earlier, even as the government merged small operations and shut unlicensed producers, the China Daily reported on May 20, citing Huang Yi, spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety.

Separately, Shanghai-listed Pingdingshan Tianan Coal Mining Co. said in a June 18 statement that a blast at one of its coal mines killed five workers and left three missing.

--Xiao Yu and Chua Baizhen. Editors: John Viljoen, Ang Bee Lin.