BEIJING
Sixteen miners were killed when a coal mine collapsed in China's western Xinjiang region, state news agency Xinhua reported Saturday.
Citing the Xinjiang Administration of Coal Mine Safety, the agency said the accident happened near regional capital Urumqi late Friday night as 33 workers worked underground. Six escaped and another 11 were injured and have been hospitalized.
The accident, at an unspecified colliery, is being investigated.
According to a Mining Technology earlier this year, China produces more than one-third of annual global coal output but accounts for more than two-thirds of mining deaths around the world each year.
In June, 22 workers were killed in an accident at Yanshitai Coal Mine in southwestern China.
The world’s worst coal mine disaster occured at Benxihu in China’s eastern Liaoning province in 1942 when 1,549 miners working under the control of Japanese occupation forces died.
www.aa.com.tr/en
