Inside China Today

35 people perish in major mine disaster in Hebei.

A major coalmine disaster took place at Lijiawa Mine in Hebei Province in July and now it’s been confirmed that 35 people died in the mining disaster. After the incident, the mine owner, village and county government colluded together, and concealed the mining mishap for over 50 days.

According to mainland media reports, illegal storage of explosives at the coalmine exploded at 8:30 am on July 14, 2008, causing heavy casualties. After the disaster, the mine owner took the recovered bodies of victims and their family members to the surrounding counties and cities in order to conceal the incident, and compensated them separately. Meanwhile the culprits resorted to bribes and intimidation to prevent miners and the victims’ families from revealing the situation to the outside world.

It is understood that the mine was illegally constructed and illegally operated. It should have been closed and has been operating without approved certification.

The accident is being further investigated and verified. A group of suspected local officials in collusion have been punished.

BBC reported that China is the world’s most frequent occurrence in mine disasters. Official figures show that nearly 3,800 miners had died in 2007 alone. China is currently facing a huge demand for energy. Under such pressure, the coalmine production safety has drawn more concerns.