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Tuesday May 17, 2005

China coal mine gas explosion kills 21

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Twenty-one miners died in a coal mine explosion in southwestern China, the government said Tuesday.

Initial reports said only one miner had died and 15 were missing from the blast Thursday at a small mine in Panzhihua, an iron and steel industrial base in Sichuan province.

However, rescuers found another 20 bodies, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Ten miners who survived the explosion were hospitalised, the report said.

It said a preliminary investigation found the blast was caused by "violation of production procedures and poor management.''

No other details were given.

China's mines, especially collieries, are notoriously hazardous.

Panzhihua also reported fatal coal mine explosions in 2002 and 2003.

Despite repeated pledges by the government to improve safety, the number of deaths in China's coal mines surged by nearly 21 percent to 1,113 in the first three months of this year.

Accidents kill an average of 16 miners a day. - AP

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