Death toll in Henan coalmine explosion rises to 129

27 October 2004
Rescuers have recovered many more bodies from the Daping Mine near Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, where a deadly gas explosion occurred deep underground on the evening of 20 October. The confirmed death toll from the disaster has now risen to 129, according to a 27 October Xinhua report.

Rescue workers were still searching for 19 other missing miners, although the government has said there is little hope that any of them are still alive.

The report added that the bodies of 79 miners killed in the blast have now been identified by their relatives. But relatives of only 60 identified dead miners have signed agreements over compensation and the sum of the compensation to each victim has not been disclosed.

A woman whose husband is among the missing workers told China Labour Bulletin that her husband went to work underground at the coal-face because his farming plot had been occupied by the mine. After working all month without a single day off, her husband had been able to earn a monthly salary of only 1,000 Yuan, she said.

The latest confirmed death toll makes the Daping blast China's deadliest mine accident since 2000, when an underground explosion killed 162 people in a coal mine in the southern province of Guizhou.

According to the latest statistics of the State Administration of Work Safety, nearly 100,000 people were killed in traffic, work-related and other accidents in China in the first nine months of the year. Coal mine accidents resulting from grossly inadequate safety supervision accounted for 4,153 of these deaths.

Sources: China Labour Bulletin, Xinhua News Agency

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