Employees working at a coal mine in China (file photo)
By Nicholas Yong and Fiona Nimoni
BBC News
At least four people have died and 49 more are missing after a mine collapsed in China’s northern Inner Mongolia region on Wednesday.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping ordered a search and rescue operation which has so far found six survivors in the open-pit mine at Alxa League.
But desperate efforts to retrieve others were disrupted by a landslide on Wednesday evening.
It is not yet clear what caused the slope at the mine to give way.
More than 900 rescue workers had been deployed to the scene, Xinhua news agency reported.
President Xi has instructed authorities to make “every possible effort” to find survivors.
Wei Zhiguo, leader of the rescue mission, said the rescue operation had been interrupted by a “large landslide” on Wednesday evening. This had halted some search efforts overnight.
“The rescue work is being carried out in an orderly and tense manner,” he told state broadcaster CCTV.
The mine collapsed around 13:00 local time (0500 GMT) on Wednesday, burying more than 50 workers. It affected a “wide area”, authorities said.
CCTV reported the shaft had been operated by the Xinjing Coal Mining Company – which has not issued public comment.
Mines in China’s Inner Mongolia region are some of China’s top coal producers.
Accidents are not uncommon in China, where industrial safety regulations can be poorly enforced. In December 2020, 23 miners died after a carbon monoxide leak at a coal mine.
And in January 2021, 10 miners were killed in a blast at a gold mine in Shandong province.
