CHINA> Regional
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Chinese coal mine covers up gas poisoning deaths
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-09 18:58 ZHENGZHOU - Seven people died of gas poisoning in a central China coal mine last week, but the management attempted to conceal the accident, the local government revealed Saturday. A government investigation found that five bodies had been removed to other places and one who died in a hospital went unreported, according to the city government of Dengfeng, where the accident took place.
The mine only reported one death to authorities on May 2, when carbon monoxide burst out in a shaft where 69 miners were working underground. Investigators were told that one worker died at the site and 54 escaped, but they discovered that five died on the way to hospital and another died after medical treatment failed. Eight others recovered, said Yang Zhanwei, head of the city's coal industry bureau.
Police are still questioning the five suspects. The licensed Xinfeng Coal Mine belongs to Guangxian Industrial and Trading Co. Ltd. with a designed production capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year. |