The death toll from China's worst mine disaster in 17 years has been revised down to 82, local officials announced at a press conference late on Saturday. The explosion occurred at the Liushenyu coal mine in Shanxi province on Friday evening.
Initial state media reports had put the number of fatalities at 90. However, Guo Xiaofang, head of Qinyuan county where the mine is located, said the earlier figure was inaccurate due to chaos at the scene and confusion over the number of workers underground.
At the time of the blast, 247 miners were on duty. Two remain unaccounted for, 128 were injured and hospitalised, and 35 were uninjured. The mine is owned by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group, which has closed all four of its mines and detained company executives.
President Xi Jinping has called for authorities to spare no effort in treating the injured and conducting search and rescue operations, and has ordered an investigation. State-run newspaper People's Daily published an editorial calling for greater attention to safety and a reversal of the tendency to prioritise development over safety.
Despite the revised toll, the incident remains China's deadliest mining accident since 2009, when a gas explosion at the Xinxing Mine in Heilongjiang killed 108 people. The Liushenyu mine has an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons of coal.
