Coal Mine Blast in Western China Kills 41; 42 Still Missing

An explosion in a coal mine Monday in China's far west killed 41 people, with another 42 still missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

July 11, 2005

A Chinese rescue worker takes a rest between rescue efforts at the Shenlong Coal Mine in Fukang, northwestern China's Xinjiang region, Monday, July 11, 2005.

BEIJING (AP) -- An explosion in a coal mine Monday in China's far west killed 41 people, with another 42 still missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The blast occurred at 2:30 a.m. in the Shenlong Coal Mine in the Xinjiang region, when about 87 miners were working, Xinhua said. Four were rescued.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, with explosions, floods and fires killing thousands of workers each year. Inadequate safety equipment and lax safety rules are often blamed for the accidents.

Accidents killed 1,113 coal miners in the first three months of this year _ up 20.8 percent from the same period of 2004, according to the government.

There was no telephone listing for the Shenlong mine. A man who answered the phone at the work safety bureau in Fukang county, where the mine is located, said the cause of the explosion was under investigation.