In a tragic mining incident, at least 16 people were killed when a fire broke out at the Shanjiaoshu Coal Mine in Chinas southwest region. The incident is said to have taken place at around 8:10 a.m. (0010 GMT) on Sunday, as per media reports.The Panzhou City government said that the fire was extinguished but upon preliminary verification, 16 people were said to have no vitals in a notice they put up on their website.“It was preliminarily determined that the conveyor belt caught fire,” the notice said.Disasters related to coal mines The Panzhou City mine is about 3,600 kilometres (2,250 miles) southwest of the capital of China, Beijing.Although safety in Chinas mining industry has improved recently, accidents still frequently happen in the sector, frequently as a result of slack implementation of safety regulations, especially at the most basic locations.Numerous persons and vehicles were trapped under a mound of debris in February after a coal mine collapsed in Inner Mongolias north. Authorities withheld the ultimate death toll for several months before disclosing that 53 individuals had died.
