Chinese police were hunting for two men responsible for a coal mine in northern China where an explosion caused the deaths of 105 people in the country's second deadliest mining accident this year, the government said Sunday, according to AP. Investigations were opened into 35 others linked to the Hongtong mine in the northern province of Shanxi, with 21 placed in detention and two formally arrested, the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety said in a news release. Elsewhere in the country's sprawling and notoriously unsafe mining industry, 11 men were rescued Sunday from a collapsed iron and gold mine where they had been trapped for more than five days, the administration said on its Web site. Xinhua news agency reported all 11 miners were in stable condition and were able to walk out with the help of rescuers. They were being examined at a local hospital, it said. The accident in Chengde, north of Beijing, occurred Monday afternoon, but the mine's owner delayed reporting it to local authorities until Thursday morning, it said. Mine owners routinely attempt to hide accidents from authorities to avoid being fined or shut down. Authorities blame a similar delay for the high death toll at the Hongtong mine, where operators waited more than five hours before calling in outside rescuers. In the intervening period, dozens of miners were sent into the shaft to search for survivors, 15 of whom were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes and died, the administration said. It said the search for more survivors had been called off. Mine operators «ignored safety rules and ignored the law,» state broadcaster CCTV said on its main national news program alongside pictures of top industrial safety inspector Li Yizhong and other officials visiting the accident scene. The mine's boss and his manager were among those held. However, those men were believed to have been mere figureheads, and the mine's real owner and his chief lieutenant were believed to have fled, it said. The mine's bank accounts have been frozen, Xinhua said. Reports said 15 men escaped the mine with minor injuries, but the exact number of miners underground at the time of the blast was unclear. China's coal mines average 13 deaths a day from fires, explosions and floods, making them the world's deadliest. In August, 181 miners died when heavy rains flooded two mines in eastern Shandong province. Disregard for basic safety measures and failure to invest in required ventilation, fire control and other equipment were the leading causes of such accidents. Many mine operators are motivated to cut corners in pursuit of production bonuses, egged on by the sizzling economy's voracious appetite for coal to generate electricity. Miners, meanwhile, rarely assert their rights in an industry where they stand to make about 100 yuan (US$13.50; ¤9.22) per day, considerably higher than China's average wage for unskilled work.
