Five people have been arrested in connection with the July 11 colliery gas blast in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that killed 83 miners, according to the local government yesterday, and two other coal mine accidents claimed at least five lives in Shanxi and Hunan provinces over the weekend.

The arrests of five Shenlong Coal Mine officials were approved by the procuratorate of Fukang City on July 22, said Chi Wenhui, deputy secretary of the government of Jichang Hui Autonomous Prefecture.

The five being held responsible are: Jiang Jinpeng, former board chairman of Shenlong Coal Mine Ltd Co that runs the colliery, Liu Junbo, head of the mine, Ren Yanlu, director of its production and technology section, Su Jindu, the deputy head in charge of work safety, and Zhou Fuping, the dispatcher on duty at the time of the blast.

Chi said some ventilators in the mine stopped working, leaving gas accumulating in the shafts to reach dangerous levels.

In addition, Chi said overproduction, absence of a work safety license and bad management were also factors.

The colliery turned out 180,000 tons of coal in the first half of this year, far exceeding its annual capacity of 30,000 tons and leading to an extremely high gas density in the colliery shaft.

Gas levels had reached three percent, well above the safety mark of one percent, three or four hours before the blast occurred, said Chi.

It could have been avoided if the mine’s management had taken effective measures to withdraw miners and cut electricity underground right after detecting the high gas levels, he said.

The explosion took place around 2:30 AM two weeks ago while 87 people were working underground. Only four of them survived what a senior state work safety official described as Xinjiang's worst coal mine accident in history.

An investigation launched by a State Administration for Work Safety team is still underway.

At least four miners were fatally poisoned by gas at a colliery in Tanghou Village of Puxian County in Shanxi at 9:55 PM on Saturday night, said Linfen City government sources yesterday.

The city's coal mine safety administration said it does not yet know how many miners were working underground when the accident happened, so the number of people missing has not been established.

The mine was undergoing safety improvements when the accident occurred in order to qualify for a work safety certificate, according to the administration.

A senior Linfen government official has arrived on site to supervise rescue work and investigations into the cause of the accident are underway.

One miner was also confirmed dead yesterday and four others missing after an explosion at Shuangzishan Coal Mine in Lengshuijiang City in Hunan at 7:40 AM on Sunday.

Zhang Tongming, an official from the local coal mine safety regulator, said the deceased died of suffocation and his body was found about 200 meters from the site of the accident.

Gas and 500 tons of coal were ejected from the mine, and it is still unclear how many miners were working underground when it took place.

Another coal mine gas blast in the same city claimed 22 miners' lives at Zijiang Coal Mine on June 8, injuring nearly 40 others.

Lengshuijiang authorities ordered all coal mines to suspend operations at an emergency meeting on July 22, but the Shuangzishan colliery did not comply.

Investigation and rescue teams are working underground.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2005)