China lowers death toll in coal mine disaster to 82

The chaos following the worst mining disaster in China in the last 17 years led to the death toll being revised to 82.

People died in a gas explosion at the Liushenyu coal mine in China’s northern Shanxi province late Friday.

Initially, state media reports stated that at least 90 people were killed.

Even with a lower figure, the incident remains China’s deadliest mining accident since 2009, when a gas explosion at the Xinxing Mine in Heilongjiang province killed 108 people.

Local officials said at a news conference on Saturday that the initial death toll in state media was incorrectly calculated.

“The environment was chaotic after the incident, the company’s number of workers was unclear, which led to the initial number being inaccurate,” said Guo Xiaofang, head of Shanxi’s Qinyuan district, where the mine is located.

247 workers were working underground at the time of the explosion.

Guo said that there was no news from two people, 128 people were injured and hospitalized, and 35 people were not injured.

The Liushenyu mine is owned by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group, and all four mines have been closed and company executives have been detained, local officials said at the press conference.

The state-run People’s Daily newspaper published an editorial about the accident on its front page on Sunday morning, calling for greater attention to safety in production and “a complete reversal of the trend of prioritizing development over safety.”

President Xi Jinping on Saturday called on authorities to “spare no effort” in treating the injured and conducting search and rescue operations, according to Xinhua. He also ordered an investigation into the incident.

At the press conference, officials said that the mine has a coal production capacity of 1.2 million tons per year.

Last year, China extracted 4.83 billion tons of fuel, which forms the backbone of its energy sector.