Coal mine gas explosion in China kills 82 people : NPR
This photo released by Xinhua News Agency shows a scene at the rescue site of Liushenyu coal mine in Changzhi city, China’s Shanxi province, Saturday, May 23, 2026.
Cao Yang/XinHua via AP
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Cao Yang/XinHua via AP
BEIJING — A gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China’s Shanxi province killed at least 82 people, state media reported Saturday, after dozens were left trapped underground.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the accident at the Liushenyu coal mine in Changzhi city occurred on Friday evening and left 247 workers trapped underground.
The agency initially reported Saturday morning that eight people had been killed and 38 were trapped underground.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation, Xinhua reported, and rescue operations are continuing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for an all-out effort to rescue the missing and an investigation into the causes of the accident while holding those responsible to account, according to Xinhua.
Shanxi province is known as the main mining province of China. With a size larger than Greece and a population of around 34 million, the province’s hundreds of thousands of miners extracted 1.3 billion tonnes (1.17 billion metric tonnes) of coal last year, almost a third of China’s total.
