A deadly gas blast at a mining facility in China’s Shanxi province has resulted in eight fatalities and left 38 workers trapped beneath the surface, according to state media reports released Saturday.
The incident occurred Friday evening at the Liushenyu coal mine located in Changzhi city, as reported by the official news agency Xinhua. At the time of the blast, approximately 247 workers were operating below ground. By early Saturday morning, rescue teams had successfully evacuated 201 workers to safety.
Authorities are currently investigating what triggered the deadly explosion, Xinhua stated.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered comprehensive rescue efforts for the missing workers and demanded a thorough investigation into what caused the tragedy, with accountability measures for those found responsible, according to the news agency.
The affected province serves as China’s primary coal mining region. Despite being larger than Greece with approximately 34 million residents, Shanxi’s extensive mining workforce of hundreds of thousands extracted 1.3 billion tons (1.17 billion metric tons) of coal during the previous year, representing nearly one-third of the nation’s total coal production.
