12 People killed in China Mine Fire

Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 4:33 pm

BEIJING: A fire in a southeastern China coal mine trapped and killed 12 workers, an official said Saturday, in the latest fatal accident for China’s mining industry.

The chief of the coal mine management section in Xinyu city, Jiangxi province, said the bodies were being removed from the Miaoshang mine.

The official, who gave his surname as Ouyang, said in a telephone interview that a short circuit in an underground cable caused the fire. The mine had a license to operate and was in the process of doubling its production capacity from 30,000 tons a year to 60,000 tons, Ouyang said.

He said an investigation into the fire was under way.