Beijing: At least 16 people were killed when a fire broke out at Shanjiaoshu Coal Mine at Guizhou province in south-west China on Sunday, AFP reported.
The fire was extinguished but “after preliminary verification, 16 people have no vital signs,” Panzhou City government said in a notice posted on its website.
According to preliminarily report, the mishap was triggered by a fire on the conveyor belt, the notice said.
The coal mine in Panzhou City is located around 3,600 kilometres from China’s capital Beijing.
Despite improvements in recent decades, accidents in China’s mining sector are still a worry, often due to lax enforcement of safety protocols.
Early this year, a coal mine collapsed in northern Inner Mongolia region, leaving dozens of people and vehicles buried under a mountain of debris. Authorities revealed months later that 53 people had been killed.
