An open pit mine has collapsed in China’s northern Inner Mongolia region, killing at least two people and leaving more than 50 missing on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
According to the Danish news media BT, at least 57 people are missing after the mine collapsed.
Wednesday afternoon Danish time, only three people had been rescued. Two of them were apparently deceased.
The accident happened in the region of Inner Mongolia, which borders Mongolia and Russia, among others.
A video of the collapse posted on the website of the Beijing Times newspaper showed a massive wall of reddish sand rushing down a slope onto mining vehicles below. The mine is operated by the coal mining company Xinjing Coal Mining Company.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded “all-out efforts in search and rescue of the missing and treatment of the injured,” Chinese media reports. More than 300 rescue workers operating 129 rescue vehicles are supposedly involved in the search.
According to BT, security around the Chinese mines has improved significantly in recent decades.
This is mainly due to the big media attention to the mining accidents, which has been happening on regular basis.
As recently as December, a mine collapsed in the Xinjiang region. 40 people were in the mine at the time of the accident, while in 2021, 20 miners were rescued from a flooded coal mine in Shanxi province.
In addition to the 20 who escaped the accident alive, two miners lost their lives.
Source: BT.dk
