Chinese authorities have revised the death toll from 90 to 82 following a gas explosion at a coal mine in the northern province of Shanxi.
May 24, 2026, 09:12May 24, 2026, 09:12
Chaotic conditions at the scene of the accident led to the inaccurate information, the head of the Qinyuan county government, Guo Xiaofang, told journalists late on Saturday evening, according to state media. Even with the death toll revised slightly downwards, it is China’s most devastating mining accident in more than 16 years.
An ambulance at the scene of the accident in China.Image: keystone
A gas explosion occurred at the mine in Qinyuan County on Friday evening, leaving nearly 250 workers underground. According to the latest authorities, all 128 injured people were in stable condition.
The exact cause of the accident is not yet known. But according to an initial investigation, serious violations of the law were found by the mine operator, as Chinese state media reported. It is not yet known what the specific violations are. Meanwhile, several people have been arrested.
Shanxi Province is considered one of the centers of China’s coal industry. Although China has increasingly relied on renewable energy in recent years, coal still accounts for just over half of the country’s total energy consumption.
In the past, serious accidents with many deaths have repeatedly occurred in China, even though the implementation of safety standards has noticeably improved in recent years. The current mining disaster is the most devastating in China since 2009, when 108 people died in an explosion in a coal mine in Heilongjiang province near the Russian border. (sda/dpa)