Over 27,700 people in China were killed or went missing in workplace accidents in the first half of the year, work safety authorities said today.
The figure represented a drop of 13.9 per cent compared with the same period last year, said Wang Dexue, deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety.
A total of 226,048 workplace accidents took place during the same period, down 3.8 per cent from the first half of 2012, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as saying.
Wang said work safety is still a major problem, as negligence by local work safety supervisors has led to frequent industrial accidents in China, particularly in the country's mining industry.
A fire that killed 119 people at a poultry plant in northeast China's Jilin Province in June raised concerns about work safety conditions and led to a nationwide work safety overhaul.
