Four miners were suffocated and one was reported missing
following a build-up of poisonous gas in a coal mine in central
China's Hubei Province, local work safety officials said
Monday.
The accident happened around 9:43 a.m. Monday at the Wangzigou
colliery in Zigui County when ventilation equipment in the mine
stopped working, said the Yichang City Work Safety
Administration.
As of 11 p.m., four had been confirmed dead while one was still
missing.
The colliery is licensed with an approved annual capacity of
10,000 tons. It was upgrading facilities and planned to raise its
capacity to 30,000 tons in the second half of this year.
The cause of the accident is still being investigated.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2008)