A gas explosion in a Chinese coal mine killed at least 15 miners, a news report said today.
The explosion occurred before dawn yesterday in the Yile Coal Mine in the southern town of Shuitang in Guizhou province, the government's Xinhua News Agency reported. The mine owner had been taken into custody.
Xinhua said the tunnel ceiling collapsed, hampering rescuers who were looking for the final missing miner, citing provincial mine safety authorities.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation, the report said. China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, suffering thousands of deaths a year in fires, floods and other disasters despite repeated official promises to improve safety.
Many accidents are blamed on indifference to safety rules or lack of required equipment such as ventilators to remove explosive fumes that seep from the coalbed.