From AFP, via NEWS.com.au:
CHINA recorded some 2700 mining fatalities in the first half of the year, with major accidents involving up to 29 fatalities more than doubling during the period, state press reported today.
Some 2672 miners died in Chinese mines during the first six months of the year, a 3.3 per cent rise over the same period last year, the People’s Daily said.
Mining accidents involving more than 10 deaths increased by 14 per cent compared with the first half of 2004, with 59 such accidents occurring in the first six months of 2005, killing 1319 miners, the paper said, citing the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.
According to the paper, “major” mining accidents in the first half of the year were up by 33 per cent to 24 accidents, killing 704 miners, an increase of 114 per cent over the same period in 2004.
The figures did not include coal mine accidents in July, including an accident in the Fukang mine in China’s western-most Xinjiang region that killed 83 miners on Monday and an accident on Thursday in southern Guangdong province that left at least 16 miners feared dead.
