Shanxi Coal Mine Blast Kills 90, Hospitalizing 123 in China’s Deadliest Mining Disaster in Over 10 Years
Updated
Updated · CNN · May 23
Shanxi Coal Mine Blast Kills 90, Hospitalizing 123 in China’s Deadliest Mining Disaster in Over 10 Years
18 articles · Updated · CNN · May 23
Nearly 20 hours after Friday evening’s blast, rescuers were still searching the Liushenyu coal mine in Shanxi after 90 deaths were confirmed, with 201 workers evacuated from roughly 250 underground.
Carbon monoxide levels had exceeded limits inside the mine, state media said, while one survivor described smoke, a sulfur smell and miners collapsing before he lost consciousness.
Xi Jinping ordered an all-out rescue, a thorough investigation and accountability, and state media said the person in charge of the operating company had been placed under legal control measures.
The explosion is China’s deadliest mining accident in more than a decade, underscoring persistent safety risks despite tighter rules introduced after a 53-worker mine collapse in Inner Mongolia in 2023.
Coal still supplies more than half of China’s energy use, and Shanxi alone produces over a quarter of the country’s coal, keeping pressure high on a sector central to energy security.
If modern safety tech exists, why did a preventable gas explosion kill 82 miners in Shanxi?
China's new energy plan needs coal. Does this mean more fatal mining disasters are simply inevitable?