Three mining accidents in the past week have killed at least 42 miners, according to Reuters:
Flood waters trapped 24 in a coal pit in central Henan province on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency said. By Monday, only six had been rescued.
The death toll from a gas blast at a coal mine in southwest Sichuan on Friday had risen to 15, with three missing, according to a local report carried by the China News Service ( www.chinanews.com.cn ).
The accident happened just a day after an explosion at a colliery in northeastern Liaoning killed 27.
State media reported on Sunday that coal mine deaths dropped by almost a quarter in the first eight months of 2008, but did not mention the number of people killed.
