Intelligent machines working at the Longwanggou Coal Mine of China Datang Corporation Ltd. in Jungar Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. File. Photo by / LIU LEI / XINHUA / EPA
May 24 (Asia Today) -- A gas explosion at a coal mine in China's Shanxi Province has killed at least 82 people in what Chinese-language media described as the country's deadliest mining accident in 17 years.
The explosion occurred at 7:29 p.m. Thursday local time in an underground tunnel at a coal mine in Qinyuan County, Changzhi City, according to Chinese and Taiwanese media reports Saturday.
The accident is the worst mining-related disaster in China since a 2009 gas explosion at a coal mine in Heilongjiang Province that killed more than 100 people.
Questions have emerged over whether local authorities initially concealed the scale of the disaster after the reported death toll sharply increased following intervention from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
