China coal mine collapses, six die, dozens missing

Dozens of people were reported missing on Friday following a collapse at a coal mine in northern China that killed six.

A rescue operation involving hundreds of workers was ongoing after a 180-metre-high slope gave way at the open-pit mine in the Inner Mongolia region’s Alxa Left Banner area on Wednesday.

Emergency efforts were initially hampered after another landslide later that day.

According to state broadcaster CCTV, 47 people were still unaccounted for, six were recovered alive, while another six were found dead.

China’s ministry of emergency management urged “all-out efforts to search for the missing personnel without delay, and not to lose hope of finding them”, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday.

“Saving lives is still the top priority,” Xinhua quoted a ministry work team as saying, adding that “efforts should also be made to prevent secondary disasters”.

Footage from CCTV showed rescue workers in orange overalls and yellow helmets dwarfed by a mountain of rust-coloured rubble, and excavators working to clear some of the debris.

“I had just started work when I saw slag falling down the slope. The situation got worse and worse,” a rescued worker named Ma Jianping told CCTV.

“We tried to organise an evacuation, but it was too late — the slope came down,” he said from a hospital bed in the neighbouring Ningxia region, a catheter protruding from his throat.

State media reported the collapse had affected a “wide area” of the mine operated by the Xinjing Coal Mining Company. It was not clear what caused the collapse.

CCTV said police were investigating, while Xinhua on Friday said the ministry of emergency management had called for “comprehensive investigations”.

AFP/PUNCH