According to state media, a coal mine collapsed on Wednesday in Inner Mongolia, northern China, leaving at least 57 persons unaccounted for.
According to the state-run outlet CGTN on Twitter, the event took place in Alxa League in the western portion of the area.
Two of the three people lifted out of the mine, according to the official news service Xinhua, “showed no vital signs.”
Xinhua reports that rescue workers have been sent to the site.
The Xinjing Coal Mining Company’s shaft collapsed over a “wide region,” according to state television station CCTV.
“A number of working staff and vehicles have been buried,” CCTV reported.
In recent years, both mine safety and media coverage of significant incidents—many of which were previously ignored—have improved in China.
However, mishaps continue to happen frequently in a sector where safety standards are frequently slack, particularly at the most basic locations.
When a gold mine in the northwest Xinjiang area collapsed in December, about 40 people were working underground.
In the northern Shanxi Province in 2021, 20 workers were rescued from a coal mine that had become submerged, but two others perished.
