A gas explosion in a coal mine in China's northeast killed at least 203 miners, the government said Tuesday, in the deadliest such disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.
The explosion Monday afternoon at the Sunjiawan mine in Liaoning province also injured 22 others and 13 trapped underground, the <i>Xinhua</i> News Agency reported. The cause of the blast, which occurred 794 feet underground, was under investigation, it said.
President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders issued orders for local officials "to spare no effort to rescue those stranded in the mine," <i>Xinhua</i> said. It said they called for "strict measures" to prevent any more such disasters.
The disaster Monday was the deadliest reported by the Chinese government since the 1949 communist revolution. However, until the late 1990s, when the government began regularly announcing statistics on mining deaths, many industrial accidents were never disclosed.
