Dozens of people were missing on Friday after a collapse at a coal mine in northern China that killed six officials
A rescue effort involving hundreds of employees was continuing after a 180-metre-high slope came way at the open-pit mine in the Inner Mongolia region’s Alxa Left Banner area. Emergency attempts were initially impeded following another landslide later that day.
According to the official broadcaster CCTV, 47 individuals were still unaccounted for, six were discovered alive, while another six were found dead.
China’s ministry of emergency management recommended “all-out efforts to search for the missing individuals without delay, and not to lose hope of locating them”, the official news agency Xinhua said Friday.
“Saving lives is still the priority,” Xinhua cited a ministry work team, adding that “efforts should also be taken to avert secondary disasters”.
Footage from CCTV showed rescue personnel in orange overalls and yellow helmets dwarfed by a pile of rust-coloured rubble, with excavators labouring to remove part of the debris.
“I had scarcely begun work when I observed slag tumbling down the hill. The situation grew worse and worse,” a rescued worker called Ma Jianping told CCTV.
“We attempted to plan an evacuation, but it was too late – the slope fell,” he recalled from a hospital bed in the adjoining Ningxia province, a catheter protruding from his neck.
State media stated the collapse had harmed a “wide area” of the mine managed by the Xinjiang Coal Mining Company. It was not obvious what triggered the collapse.
– ‘I’d have died’ Video released on social media by a coal truck driver on Wednesday showed boulders flowing down a hill, throwing up clouds of dust that covered numerous cars.
“The entire slope has collapsed… How many people must be killed from that?” a male voice can be heard asking in the distance.
“If I’d lined up over there today, I’d have perished in there, too.”
Located in China’s dry north, Alxa League — which includes the Alxa Left Banner — is a thinly inhabited area whose economy depends heavily on mining and other extractive sectors.
Mine safety in China has improved in recent decades, as has media coverage of important events, many of which were earlier disregarded.
Accidents still occur often, though, in a sector where safety regulations are typically inadequate, particularly at the most primitive facilities.
Around 40 people were working underground when a gold mine in the northern Xinjiang province collapsed in December.
In 2021, 20 workers were rescued from a flooded coal mine in northern Shanxi province, while two more perished.
