The death toll from a coal mine collapse in northern China rose to five on Thursday, according to state media, as rescuers searched for dozens who remained missing after a massive landslide hampered recovery efforts overnight.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, more than 50 people were trapped when a 180-metre-high slope gave way at the open-pit mine in the Inner Mongolia region’s Alxa Left Banner area at around 1:00 p.m. (0500 GMT) on Wednesday.
Hundreds of rescue workers were dispatched to the remote location, but efforts to save those trapped beneath the rubble were temporarily halted by another landslide later that day.
Rescuers have since resumed their work, with CCTV reporting on Thursday afternoon that at least five people had been killed, six had been injured, and 48 were still missing.
Rescue workers in orange overalls and yellow helmets were dwarfed by a mountain of rust-colored rubble, with excavators working to clear some of the debris.
“I had just begun working when I noticed slag falling down the slope. “The situation deteriorated,” a rescued worker named Ma Jianping told CCTV.
“We tried to organize an evacuation, but it was too late — the slope collapsed,” he said from a hospital bed in the nearby Ningxia region, a catheter protruding from his throat.
A doctor at the hospital told CCTV that the injured were all in stable condition.
According to state media, the collapse affected a “wide area” of the Xinjing Coal Mining Company’s mine.
