Wangjialing coal mine flood
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. (March 2010) |
| Wangjialing coal mine flood | |||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 王家岭煤矿“3·28”透水事故 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 王家嶺煤礦“3·28”透水事故 | ||||||
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The 2010 Wangjialing coal mine flood is an incident that began on Sunday, March 28, 2010, when underground water flooded parts of the Wangjialing coal mine in Shanxi province, People's Republic of China. A total of 261 people were in the mine when workers first broke through an abandoned shaft that was filled with water. Over 100 managed to escape, but 153 workers were trapped in nine different platforms of the mine.
Television reports spoke of the survivors attaching themselves by belts to the wall of the mine as waters rushed in. They hung there for three days until a mine cart drifted by and they got in.
Most workers are safe with a few dozen still trapped as of 5 April.[1]
The mine belongs to state-owned Huajin Coking Coal Co. Ltd. At the time, workers were building the mine's infrastructure to allow it to produce 6 million tons of coal per year at full production.
Location
Wangjialing (王家嶺/王家岭, "King's family range") is in Shanxi province's south-west. More specifically, it sits on Mount Longmen. The mine is located between Fancun (Chinese: 樊村镇; pinyin: Fáncūn zhèn; southeast of the mountain) and Xiahua (Chinese: 下化乡; pinyin: Xiàhuà xiāng; northwest of the mountain) in Hejin (a county-level city) and Xipo (Chinese: 西坡镇; pinyin: Xīpō zhèn; northeast of the mountain) in Xiangning County. Hejin and Xiangning are both in the province of Shanxi but belong to different prefecture-level cities: Hejin is in Yuncheng while Xiangning belongs to Linfen. The mine is near bridges that spans the Yellow River between the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi.
Rescue efforts
More than 3,000 rescue workers are working to pump out the water, equivalent in volume to 55 Olympic swimming pools.[2] Rescuers are facing black, murky water and a high concentration of toxic gas.[3]
After a week of being trapped, 9 workers were rescued during the early morning hours of April 5, and sent to a hospital in Hejin.[4] In the same day, a total of 115 trapped workers had been rescued and were quickly sent to hospitals; 26 of them were in a poor state of health.[5] According to survivors, some ate paper and chewed on coal for hunger relief.[6]
On April 6, 6 workers were found dead. The search and rescue for the remaining 32 people is ongoing.[7]
See also
- 2006 Nanshan Colliery disaster, a mine explosion in Shanxi
- 2008 Shanxi mudslide caused by the collapse of an unlicensed mine landfill
- 2009 Shanxi mine blast
References
- ^ Grammaticas, Damian (2010-04-05). "Scores rescued from Chinese mine". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- ^ Cara, Anna (2010-04-04). "No sign of 153 miners a week after flood hit". Scotsman.com News. Retrieved 2010-04-04.
- ^ "Hundreds join Chinese mine rescue effort". BBC. 2010-03-30. Retrieved 2010-04-04.
- ^ "State TV says 9 rescued from flooded Chinese mine". Associated Press. 2010-04-04. Retrieved 2010-04-04.
- ^ "26 in 115 survivors are in bad healthy state (In Chinese)". Sina.com. 2010-04-05. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- ^ "Chinese mine survivors enjoy first full meal in 10 days". Shanghai Daily. 04-06-2010.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "6 people have been killed in Wangjialing accident, the remaining 32 people await rescue (in Chinese)". Sina.com. 2010-04-06. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- Barriaux, Marianne. "123 trapped in flooded China coal mine". AFP. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
- "123 Trapped in Flooded Coal Mine in Northern China". Associated Press. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
- Benjamin Kang Lim (2010-03-28). "Flood in new China coal mine traps 123 miners". Reuters. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
- "Flood Traps 153 Chinese Miners Underground". CBS News. 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2010-04-04.
External links
- April 4 CCTV report (video)