Two natural disasters and one coal mine accident claimed 12 lives and injured 21 in the last two days. Thirty miners are also still trapped underground after Sunday's colliery flooding.
Three people were killed and 13 others injured yesterday in a hailstorm mixed with torrential rain that pelted Dahua Yao Autonomous County, in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, local government sources confirmed today.
Among three locals killed in Yahe Village of Guwen Town, one was hit by lightning and two by debris from collapsing houses, the sources said.
Initial estimates said the hailstorm had affected more than 10,000 people in 12 towns and townships and damaged about 670 hectares of cropland in Dahua County.
Local government departments have sent officials in a rescue operation to help villagers rebuild their homes and resume production.
Another four people died and two were injured when a landslide, caused by heavy rainfall, crushed a reinforced concrete work-shed early on Monday morning in southwest China's Guizhou Province, according to local officials.
The accident occurred in Renhuai County as eight people from three families were sleeping in the shed, which they were using as makeshift home. Two escaped but the other six were buried.
A 10-year-old girl and her parents were found dead after they were excavated at about 8:00 AM, whilst an eight-year-old boy died later in hospital.
The local government ordered a transfer of residents exposed to possible landslide dangers.
A Shanxi local government official announced today that Sunday's colliery accident, which claimed five lives and injured six in the northern province, was caused by violations of work regulations.
Police are investigating Bai Baofu, the owner of the mine, and several others involved, and all the colliery's bank accounts have been frozen, said Guo Jianzhong, director of the Gaoping City bureau in charge of workplace safety supervision and management.
Guo acknowledged that Duzhai Coal Mine, run by the township government, has been expanding its production capacity to 300,000 tons a year from an annual output of merely 60,000 tons.
Bai had kept enlarging its workface for the purpose of turning out more coal without any official appraisal, Guo said.
At present, the city government has ordered 170 local coal mines to halt production for a thorough safety check-up since the accident.
According to the latest reports, 30 miners remain trapped underground after the flooding of the Tengda Coal Mine in Jiaohe City, Jilin Province on Sunday, from which 39 escaped alive yesterday.
(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2005)
