Thirty-three miners were confirmed dead and 61 others were missing after a fire at five iron ore mines in northern China, state media reported Sunday. The fire started at 10:30 am Saturday in a privately run mine in Hebei province and rapidly spread to four nearby iron ore mines, trapping 106 people working underground, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
By 7:00 pm Sunday, 45 miners had been removed from the mines in Baita township, Xinhua reported, without saying how many were dead and how many were alive.
Preliminary investigations found that an electronic cable had ignited in one of the mines and the resulting fire spread to four connected mines, Xinhua said.
Police have detained the people in charge of the mines and frozen their bank accounts, it said.
Premier Wen Jiabao ordered rescue teams to make every effort to find the trapped workers and punish those responsible for the disaster, the latest to hit China's mines.
The State Council, China's cabinet, also appointed a team to investigate the fire.
The Hebei provincial government said the fire was the third major safety accident in the province in the past two months, after a gas blast in Handan killed 13 people and 29 others died when a coal mine flooded in the same city.