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50 trapped in east China gold mine fire, 280 escape

07 August 2010 00:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Rescuers had located 47 of 50 trapped miners following a fire that engulfed a gold mine in east China’s Shandong Province Friday, local authorities said early Saturday morning, APA reports quoting news.xinhuanet.com website.

A total of 329 miners were working underground when the fire broke out at about 5 p.m. at the Luoshan Gold Mine run by Lingnan Mining Co. Ltd. in Zhaoyuan, a small city under the jurisdiction of Yantai City, and 279 had been lifted to the ground safely as of 1 a.m., a spokesman with the rescue headquarters told Xinhua.

Fifty people were still trapped underground, with 47 miners’ locations identified, he said.

Dozens of injured miners had been sent to two local hospitals, he said.

Over 100 rescuers are working at the scene. Underground fire is yet to be totally extinguished and a burning smell lingers in the air outside the shaft.

An initial investigation showed that the fire was likely caused by an underground cable, he added.

The province’s Communist Party chief Jiang Yikang and governor Jiang Daming are on their way to the scene to oversee the rescue.