BEIJING (AP) -- A fire raced through coal mine in northern China, killing 26 miners, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.
It was a new blow to China's accident-plagued industrial complex, days after a massive gas leak killed 191 people in China's southwest. Thousands of people are killed every year in coal mine explosions and other disasters.
The fire broke out at about 8 a.m. on Friday in the mine in Wu'an, a city in Hebei province, Xinhua said. Investigators found that cables in mine caught fire, igniting a larger blaze, Xinhua said. Thirty-six miners were in the mine, but 10 escaped, the report said. It said rescue workers found 26 bodies.
China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, with more than 4,200 deaths reported this year in fires, cave-ins and other accidents.
Many accidents are blamed on negligence, lack of required fire and safety equipment and indifference to safety regulations by managers.
