21 killed in coal mine fire accident in China

Twenty-one workers were killed today when a fire engulfed a state-owned coal mine in China's northeast Heilongjiang province, one of the deadliest accidents to hit the world's largest coal producer.
One missing mine worker was located safely.
Rescuers have found bodies of 21 workers after a coal mine caught fire in Jixi city of the province late last evening, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
A total of 38 miners were working down in the shaft when the fire broke out at the mine in Jixi city operated by the state-owned Heilongjiang Longmay Mining Holding Group. 16 of them managed to escape.

The government said the fire was under control and no secondary disaster had been reported.
President of the mining group Hao Fukun said rescuers could reach the missing miner by midnight. The report, however, did not mention the condition of the missing person who was safely traced.

The communication, power supply and hoisting system in the shaft have been resumed, Hao said, adding the ventilation condition has been significantly improved.
The coal mine, with a production capacity of two million tonnes every year, is fully licensed, the report said.
Accidents have become common as energy hungry China, world's largest producer of coal, depends a lot on coal supplies to fire its economy.

This is the deadliest mine incident since April this year when a water leak at a coal mine killed 21 people in the northern city of Datong in Shanxi province.
In August, 10 people were killed in two separate accidents at coal mines in China. In October, one person was killed in Shandong province.