Rescue efforts ramp up in China coal mine collapse

HOHHOT -- Cutting-edge equipment and technologies are being used as search and rescue efforts have been ramped up following the collapse of a coal mine in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, local authorities said on Friday.

The open-pit mine collapsed in Alxa Left Banner at around 1 pm Wednesday. As of 2 pm Friday, six people have been rescued from the debris, six have been confirmed dead, and 47 others are still missing, the region's emergency response headquarters said at a press briefing.

Rescue forces use satellite remote sensing technology and on-site monitoring to delimit areas where the buried are relatively concentrated, said Cheng Xiangdong, with the region's fire and rescue corps.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are also used to draw two-dimensional and three-dimensional images of the collapsed area to narrow down the search and rescue area, Cheng said.

"After determining the search and rescue area, we use life detectors, search and rescue dogs, and other ways to confirm the specific location of the trapped. The car GPS, metal detectors, and other equipment are also used to improve the search and rescue accuracy," added Cheng.

The rescue is very difficult due to the huge landslide volume on-site and a second landslide that occurred around 6 p.m. on Wednesday, said Zhang Yong, an expert with the rescue headquarters.

The difficulties faced by the current rescue work include a huge volume of landslide material, poor stability of the sliding body and small area for operating, according to Zhang.

In response to these difficulties, the rescue headquarters came up with a rescue technical plan after site surveys, evaluation and optimization.

The plan proposed that rescue operations on multiple working faces should be carried out on the premise of ensuring safety, and more professional equipment and personnel should be deployed to search for and rescue the missing.

Real-time monitoring by radar should be adopted to observe the displacement change of the slopes, as there is still a potential risk of landslides on the north and south sides of the rescue site, according to the plan.

At present, there have been 23 rescue teams with a total of 1,155 people participating in the on-site rescue.

The cause of the coal mine collapse is under investigation. Those involved are under police custody.