China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, called on Saturday for a redoubled rescue mission in northern China after a gas explosion in a mine there killed at least 90 people, the Chinese state news agency said, in what appeared to be one of the deadliest Chinese mining disasters in years.
Mr. Xi “stressed the need to make every effort to treat the injured, organize search and rescue operations scientifically and properly handle the aftermath,” the agency, Xinhua, reported. He also called for an investigation into the explosion, which happened on Friday night, and emphasized the need to “hold those responsible to account, according to the law.”
Mr. Xi’s decision to quickly, and personally, issue a statement was significant and may have indicated that Chinese officials expected the situation to worsen. The Chinese government often holds back details of accidents while it gathers information and prepares to issue a response. But soon after Mr. Xi’s statement on Saturday, the official death count began to rise drastically, with new tolls announced every few minutes.
Xinhua initially reported eight deaths and said that more than 200 of the 247 workers who had been underground when the explosion occurred, on Friday night, had been safely recovered. The agency did not explain the jump in the death toll.
As of Saturday morning, the cause of the explosion was still unknown, according to CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster. Xinhua reported that local authorities had been alerted on Friday night that an underground carbon monoxide sensor at the site, the Liushenyu coal mine in Shanxi Province, had set off an alarm, indicating that levels had exceeded safety limits.
Live coverage from CCTV on Saturday showed emergency personnel massed on site, pulling out stretchers from ambulances alongside what appeared to be workers pushing mine carts.
The mine, operated by the Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Group, was listed in 2024 among 1,128 mines that had been cited for “severe safety hazards” by China’s National Mine Safety Administration. The Liushenyu coal mine was specifically cited for high gas levels.
“Provincial-level mine safety supervision departments must urge severely disaster-prone coal mines to implement measures for regional disaster management,” the National Mine Safety Administration said in a statement when it released the list.
China has a long history of industrial disasters, though in the past 10 years, the government has tightened safety regulations and reduced the number of industrial and mine accidents The explosion in Shanxi appears to be among the deadliest in recent years, and comes only weeks after a fireworks factory blast killed 26 in Hunan Province. It seems to be the deadliest mining disaster since 2023, when 53 people were killed after an open pit coal mine collapsed in Inner Mongolia, a region of northern China.
In 2020, 16 people died of carbon monoxide poisoning after they were trapped in a coal mine in southwestern China.
Chris Buckley contributed reporting and Li You contributed research.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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