Two mine accidents in China leave 17 dead, 104 injured, 24 trapped

An injured boy receives medical treatment in a hospital in Yicheng, north China's Shangxi Province, July 31, 2010. A blast occured near the employees' dormitory area of Liugou Coal Mine of Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co. Ltd in Linfen City on Saturday, leaving 17 people dead and more than 100 others injured. Seven seriously wounded ones have been out of danger, as all injured people were sent for medical treatment.

The death toll in an explosion at a coal mine in Linfen City of north China's Shanxi Province early Saturday has risen to 17 after another two bodies were found, local authorities said.

The blast at Liugou Coal Mine of Yicheng County also left 104 persons injured, seven of them seriously, as of 11 p.m. Saturday, said Wang Jianshe, head of the county's People's Hospital, where all the injured were admitted.

All the injured are in stable condition, Wang said.






An injured person receives medical treatment in a hospital in Yicheng, north China's Shangxi Province, July 31, 2010. A blast occured near the employees' dormitory area of Liugou Coal Mine of Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co. Ltd in Linfen City on Saturday, leaving 17 people dead and more than 100 others injured. Seven seriously wounded ones have been out of danger, as all injured people were sent for medical treatment.



An injured person receives medical treatment in a hospital in Yicheng, north China's Shangxi Province, July 31, 2010. A blast occured near the employees' dormitory area of Liugou Coal Mine of Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co. Ltd in Linfen City on Saturday, leaving 17 people dead and more than 100 others injured. Seven seriously wounded ones have been out of danger, as all injured people were sent for medical treatment.


Basic search and rescue work is over, said a senior official of Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co. Ltd, which owns the mine. The official said that the blast took place in the dormitory area, where most of buildings were destroyed by the powerful explosion.

A miner surnamed Zhang told Xinhua that families of many miners had come to live here because the children were currently on their summer vacation.

But officials so far have not disclosed how many children and women had died during the accident.

Zhang said he saw a couple died after huge stones fell on them in a dormitory room.

Initial investigation showed that the blast was caused by explosives hidden illegally in the area, and a suspect has been detained by the police, the official said.

A further Investigation into the cause of the blast is underway.

Also on Saturday, 24 people were trapped in a flooded coal mine in northeast China's Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province.

The city government said the accident at Hengxinyuan Mine took place at around 5 p.m. Saturday. No further detail is available immediately.

Two dozen workers were trapped in a flooded mine in northeast China on Sunday, the latest accident in the country's notoriously dangerous coal industry.

The State Work Safety Administration has dispatched a team to investigate the Saturday afternoon flood at a mine in Jixi city of Heilongjiang province, said a man at the administration who refused to be identified. No further details were available, he said.

News of the trapped workers came one day after a blast at a workers' dormitory killed at least 17 people in a northern city with a history of deadly mine accidents. The blast left a crater 65 feet (20 meters) across and about 16 feet (5 meters) deep, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The explosion in the early morning hours on Saturday was blamed on explosives that had been illegally hidden in the area, Xinhua reported, citing a senior official with the mine's owner, Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co. Ltd. One person has been detained.

Another seven people were seriously injured in the 2 a.m. blast at the Liugou mine in Linfen city in the northern province of Shanxi, Xinhua said.

It was not clear whether the mine was licensed. China has been trying to improve the safety of its mining industry, which is by far the world's deadliest, but an unknown number of illegal mines exist to profit off the country's huge appetite for power.

The website of the Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co. Ltd says the company is state-owned. Phone calls to the company rang unanswered Sunday.

The gritty city of Linfen is especially well-known for coal mine accidents. The city had nine major coal mine disasters, with more than 10 deaths each, between 2003 and 2008, the China Labour Bulletin reported last year.

The city's most powerful job, that of party secretary, went unfilled for more than six months in 2008 and 2009 as officials appeared to shy away.

"The most unwanted job in the Chinese Communist Party," said the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, which tracks labor issues on the mainland, when the post was finally filled with Xie Hai, who remains in the job.

His predecessor was fired after a massive landslide from an illegal mining operation submerged a village under Linfen's oversight and killed at least 277 people in late 2008.

This year, Coal mine disasters in China have killed 351 people through July 18, according to the website of China's work safety administration.

First body retrieved after landslide buries 107 in SW China-Chance to survive "dim" for 107 buried in landslide

Soldiers evacuate residents from the site of a landslide in Dazhai Village, Guanling County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, on June 28, 2010. Some 107 people from 38 families were buried and trapped by a rainstorm-triggered landslide Monday afternoon in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said. (Xinhua/Long Rongfang)


Soldiers rush to the site of a landslide in Guanling County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, on June 28, 2010. Some 107 people from 38 families were buried and trapped by a rainstorm-triggered landslide Monday afternoon in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said. (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)

Rescuers Tuesday recovered a child's body from the scene of a rainstorm-triggered landslide, which was the first body to be retrieved after 107 people were buried in the disaster in southwest China's Guizhou Province Monday afternoon.



The child, yet to be identified, was found at 5:50 p.m. under debris in Dazhai Village, Gangwu Township, in Anshun City's Guanling County, a rescue headquarters spokesman said.

Some 107 people from 38 families were buried in the landslide at 2:30 p.m. Monday and their chances of survival were "slim," rescue headquarters officials said.

Survivors made a list of the buried and Xinhua reporters counted 62 names on the list. The list, which may not be accurate, was handed over to rescuers.

More than 1,000 nearby villagers have been evacuated and over 500 more are waiting to be relocated, said the spokesman.

Wu Guangxiang, 59, a resident from Bawan Village near scene of the rain-triggered landslide, and her grandson were evacuated to a resettlement area Monday night. The local government has provided milk, biscuits, bottled water and instant noodle to the evacuees.

"The noodles were tasty. But I wonder when I could return home," said Wu as she took shelter in a tent Tuesday morning.

Jianzhuang Primary School, which was at risk, has suspended classes and sent students to safe areas.


Some 107 people from 38 families had a "slim" chance to survive after being buried by a rainstorm-triggered landslide Monday afternoon in southwest China's Guizhou Province, according to officials at the local rescue headquarters.

The landslide occurred at 2:30 p.m. in Dazhai Village, Gangwu Township of Guanling County, said a spokesman for the government of Anshun City, which administers Guanling.

Also, rescue work had been suspended due to persistent downpours, which had been pounding the township since Sunday night, said headquarters officials.

Villager Cen Chaoyang said he rushed out of his house when he heard the landslide and managed to escape.

"I called for the others to flee, but it was too late. I saw some people behind me being buried," Cen told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

Two people killed after 50-ton boulder falls on home as family watched TV

Authorities are investigating whether freezing temperatures contributed to the rock breaking off from the cliff



The ruins of the house were covered by a snowfall the day after the tragedy.Authorities are investigating whether freezing temperatures contributed to the rock breaking off from the cliff



More than 250 police and rescue workers with sniffer dogs were involved in the search for survivors



In freezing conditions, rescue workers search among the debris of the demolished home in Stein an der Traun, southern Germany, after a 50-ton boulder fell on it on Monday night


The house had been built up against the cliff face and from here the vast size of the rockfall can be seen



A father and his 18-year-old daughter were killed today when a 50-ton boulder broke off a cliff and landed on top of their home, police said.

Two more people - the man's wife and their 16-year-old son - were pulled from the rubble of the house in Germany by rescuers. They were both described as seriously injured.

The family had been sitting inside watching television, the police said. Local reports claimed the boulder had weighed 50 tons.


Neighbours said they heard a 'terrible explosion' and when they rushed from their houses, dust was rising from the ruins of the house.

Up to 250 police and rescue officers with sniffer dogs were involved in the search among the rubble for survivors.

A Red Cross official said that rescuers worked desperately overnight in freezing weather to pull the survivors from the wreckage.

'We made contact with them early on and kept talking with them through the night as we pulled away at the debris,' the official was quoted as saying.

Police described the rock as the size of a small house.

It was not clear what had caused it to fall. Authorities are now investigating whether the freezing conditions that currently grip the country had managed to fracture the cliff face.

Powerful earthquake kills 14 in Indonesia

A mosque damaged by the earthquake in the village of Cisaat, West Java, on Wednesday.


People were evacuated from their workplaces in Jakarta on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake struck the southern coast of Java, rocking buildings 120 miles away in the capital.




Map locates a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Indonesia





Workers are evacuated outside their office buildings following an earthquake in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009. A powerful underwater earthquake shook southern Indonesia Wednesday causing panicked office workers to run onto the streets in the capital witnesses and local media said.



A building is seen damaged by earthquake in the town of Tasikmalaya, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009. The powerful earthquake rattled a large swath of southern Indonesia on Wednesday, causing extensive damage to houses and buildings.



Relatives carry a victim of the earthquake at a hospital in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009. The powerful earthquake rattled a large swath of southern Indonesia on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people, injuring dozens and causing extensive damage to houses and buildings.


Deustche Bank employees exit their building in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Wednesday after a major 7.0 earthquake.


Fourteen people were killed in Indonesia after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Wednesday, officials said.

The quake was initially categorized as magnitude 7.4 before being downgraded to 7.0 by geological officials.

Social Affairs Ministry official Mardi says more than 700 houses and buildings have been badly damaged in Wednesday's 7.0 magnitude quake.

Scores of people have been injured.

Many of the victims died when their homes were buried in a landslide triggered by the temblor.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck at 2:55 p.m. (0755 GMT) off the southern coast of the main island of Java. A tsunami alert was issued but revoked less than an hour later.

A tsunami warning was issued after the quake struck at 2:55 p.m. (0755 GMT, 3:55 a.m. EDT), but revoked an hour later.

Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono reported 15 deaths in the districts of Cianjur, Tasikmalaya and Sukabumi in West Java.

Antara reported that 12 families, or about 30 people, were trapped in houses buried by a landslide in Rawa Hideung village. Six bodies had been recovered and the fate of many others was unknown, a resident, Agus Sobandi, was quoted as saying.

"Most of them are housewives and children who were playing Play Station in a buried house," Entang Kurniawan, another resident, told broadcaster TVOne.

Hospitals quickly filled with scores of injured people after the magnitude 7.0 quake struck off the southern coast of the main island of Java, where most of Indonesia's 235 million people live. The death toll was expected to rise.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake was powerful enough to cause a local tsunami, but there were no immediate reports of high waves. "Sea level readings indicate a significant tsunami was not generated," the center later said in a statement retracting the alert.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago, straddles continental plates and is prone to seismic activity along what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. A huge quake off western Indonesia caused a powerful tsunami in December 2004 that killed around 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

----------------------



-----------------------

Related Posts

• Back to Google News Hurricane wave sweeps Maine spectators out to sea..Surfer's heaven , Spectator items
• two air traffic employees suspended for talking Hp when on duty.
• Why Are Michael Jackson Autopsy Results Taking So Long?
• Tropical Storm Danny strengthens in the Atlantic
• Taj Hotel Mumbai terrorists attack lone surviving gunmen confess
• Taiwan Says 500 Feared Dead in Typhoon Mudslides ,Taiwan military rescues some 300 typhoon victims
• Taiwan Mudslide May Have Buried 600 Villagers-Up to 400 people missing in Taiwan as Typhoon Morakot hits Asia
• Summary of Fire in USA now ,Arizona,California,Colorado,Hawaii,Oregon,Utah,Washington
• Neda, young girl brutally killed in Iran, becoming symbol of rebellion
• Money-troubled doc Conray Murray last personal doc to Michael jackson found lifeline in Jackson - Full in debts