A gas blast in a north-east China coal mine killed 28 people, authorities said Saturday, according to state media, the latest incident to damage the industry's notoriously poor safety record. Thirteen others were rescued after the accident Friday at Babao Coal Mine in the city of Baishan in Jilin province, the official Xinhua news agency cited a spokesman with the provincial work safety and supervision bureau as saying.
The injuries of the 13 were not life threatening, the spokesman said, according to Xinhua. Rescue work has finished at the mine and the cause of the accident is under investigation, said the spokesman. The mine is a state-owned colliery under the Tonghua Mining (Group) Co, Ltd, the Xinhua report said. The accident occurred on the same day that a huge landslide came crashing down a mountainside in Tibet, burying 83 workers in a gold mining area, state media said. China is the world's biggest consumer of coal, relying on the fossil fuel for 70 percent of its growing energy needs.