By DPA
Beijing : Nine people have been killed in a gas explosion at a coalmine in southwestern China, local officials said Monday.
The toll given by officials in the blast at Shizishan mine in Yunnan province halved the number of victims reported initially in local newspapers.
All 36 miners who had been missing in Sunday’s accident at the Shizishan mine near Zhaotong had been rescued and seven miners were injured, the officials said.
The mine had been warned in August because gas concentrations were too high and required ventilation precautions weren’t being followed, the China News Service said.
A lack of safety measures, poor equipment, and cronyism between local regulators and mine owners have resulted in high numbers of mining accidents in China, where about 10,000 miners lose their lives on the job each year, the highest toll world over in the industry.