BEIJING (AP) -- Coal miners smoking cigarettes in a gas filled pit sparked a massive underground blast that killed 72 coal miners in northeastern China last month, the Communist Party's People's Daily said.
Open cigarette packs were found on the bodies of two dead miners at the Mengnanzhuang mine, despite rules saying no items capable of sparking a fire are to be allowed underground, the paper said.
``This shows that management over the Mengnanzhuang coal mine was extremely chaotic,'' chief investigator Wang Shuhe was quoted saying.
A short circuit had disabled the mine's ventilation system prior to the blast, causing a dangerous buildup of coal gas, the paper said.
Only four miners were rescued from the March 11 blast in the mine, located in Xiaoyi, a city in Shanxi province. The blast was the third accident in March to kill more than 10 miners in Shanxi, a major coal-producing region.
China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, with more than 5,000 deaths reported last year in fires, explosions and flooding.
At least 263 miners are reported to have died in such incidents since the beginning of the year, although many deadly accidents are believed to go unreported.
