Watch: Chinese coal mine suffers a catastrophic collapse, people and equipment are buried under a mountain wave the size of a mountain

The collapse of a coal mine in northern China on Wednesday afternoon killed six people, according to state media.

The mine collapsed due to a landslide that day, burying several workers under a pile of debris 550 yards wide and about 87 yards high, Reuters reported, citing state broadcaster CCTV.

According to state news agency Xinhua, the incident took place in the Alha Left Banner area in China’s Inner Mongolia province on Wednesday at 13:00.

The mine was operated by a small local mining company, Xinjing Coal Mining Co., according to Reuters.

As of Friday afternoon, local authorities had rescued six people and 47 were missing, emergency workers told reporters at a briefing, Xinhua reported.

Footage from the incident shows the walls of the quarry collapsing as a sea of ​​earth crashed down on workers, dump trucks and other machinery standing in the way and buried them.

Footage of the collapse of a coal mine in northern China has emerged. As a result of the incident, six people have died so far, 47 are still missing. pic.twitter.com/pQSUb6wEAA

— South China Morning Mail (@SCMPNews) February 25, 2023

“I just started working at 1:15 in the afternoon. Then I realized that rocks were falling from the mountain,” Ma Jianping, one of the rescued and hospitalized workers, told CCTV.

“I saw that the situation was getting more and more serious and an evacuation order was issued. But it was too late. The mountain just collapsed,” recalls Ma.

The six people who were rescued mostly suffered head, hip, chest, arm and upper limb injuries, Wang Benzhou, a doctor at the Qingtongxia City People’s Hospital, told Xinhua.

About 23 rescue teams with a total of up to 1,155 rescuers are conducting rescue operations to search for survivors and bodies at the mine.

Rescue teams are using remote sensing satellite technology to find areas where people buried under the landslide may be concentrated, said Cheng Xiangdong of the regional fire and rescue corps, Xinhua reported.

Rescue efforts for 47 missing miners have resumed in northern China’s Inner Mongolia, where a coal mine collapse has killed at least 6 people, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. pic.twitter.com/Qdqom9CM4E

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 24, 2023

To narrow the search, drones are being used to build 2D and 3D images of the area. After that, life detectors, search and rescue dogs and other means are used to search for the captured, Cheng said.

“GPS, metal detectors and other equipment are also being used to improve the accuracy of search and rescue operations,” Cheng added, according to Xinhua.

China is a major consumer of coal, which powers its industry. However, coal mines in China have poor safety standards, according to Reuters.

In 2020, the Chinese government restricted the construction of new mines in the provinces of Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, reports Quartz.

According to the regulations, only mines with an annual capacity of more than 1.2 million tons could be built. According to the publication, the government’s goal was to reduce pollution and focus on large, high-tech mines under close scrutiny by regulators.

According to the rules, mines like the one that collapsed, producing 900,000 tons a year, could not be built today.

“We must make every possible effort to rescue the missing and help the wounded,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said, according to Reuters.

“All regions and relevant departments should identify and eliminate all kinds of risks and hidden dangers with a sense of responsibility, strengthen preventive measures and ensure their strict implementation to better coordinate development and security,” Xi said, according to Xinhua.

Authorities in several parts of the country have ordered mines to carry out immediate safety checks and local authorities to carry out post-accident checks, Reuters reported.

The cause of the collapse is still being investigated, Xinhua said, and people associated with the incident are in police custody.

This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.

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