As of the press time, the death toll had risen to 82 after a gas explosion in a coal mine in Qinyuan County, North China’s Shanxi Province, on Friday night, and search and rescue operations were still underway, according to CCTV News.
At 7:29 pm on Friday, a gas explosion occurred at the Liushenyu coal mine, operated by Shanxi Tongzhou Group in Qinyuan County, where a total of 247 workers were underground at the time, per a release from the Qinyuan County Emergency Management Bureau published Saturday morning.
Following the incident, Party committees and governments at the provincial, city, and county levels attached great importance to the situation. Principal officials immediately made arrangements and deployments, promptly activated the emergency response mechanism, and rushed to the scene to direct rescue operations, the release said.
Intense rescue operations are still underway, and the person in charge of the company involved has been placed under control in accordance with the law, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency.
At the time of the accident, 247 people were underground. In all, 870 medical staff, rescue personnel, and police officers have been mobilized, the People’s Daily reported.
