Chinese state media say 12 of the 22 workers arrested for a week for an explosion in a gold mine are alive, while hundreds of rescue workers are seeking to put them to safety.
The Xinhua news agency said on Monday that a note passed through a rescue pit on Sunday night reported that the fate of the other 10 remains unknown.
The handwritten note said that four of the workers were injured and that the condition of others was getting worse because of the lack of fresh air and the influx of water.
Rescuers drill a new channel at the site of a gold mine that exploded in the city of Qixia, China, on Monday. (AP / Xinhua)
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Operation managers were arrested for not reporting the accident for more than a day. The mine in Qixia, a jurisdiction under the city of Yantai in Shandong province, was under construction at the time of the explosion, which occurred on January 10.
More than 300 workers seek to clear obstructions while drilling a new well to reach the chambers where workers have been trapped and to expel dangerous gases.
“Continue with the rescue efforts. We have hope, thank you,” said the note, written in pencil on notebook paper and published on Xinhua’s official website.
Chinese state media say 12 of the 22 workers arrested for a week for an explosion at the gold mine are alive, while hundreds of rescue workers are seeking to put them to safety. (AP / Xinhua)
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China’s mining industry has a reputation for circumventing safety requirements amid huge demand for coal and precious minerals, although increased supervision has reduced the frequency of accidents that used to cause an average of 5,000 miners a year.
Two accidents in the southwestern Chongqing megacity last year killed 39 miners, prompting the central government to order another safety review.