BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- From Jan. 1 to Feb. 15 this year, a total of 27 catastrophic occurred in China, with 26 cases in public areas, killing 382 people.

    Wang Xianzheng, director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), said here Friday at a national conference on publicsecurity that these accidents in early 2004 reflected a rising trend of fatal accidents in public areas.

    According to Wang, of the 26 accidents in the public areas, 21 were traffic accidents resulting in a death toll of 289 persons; one case on waterway transport killed 10 people; three cases occurred in fishing vessels, with 30 people dead, and a fire accident killing 53 people.

    Wang said in the first six weeks of 2004, security in the mining sector turned to be better, especially in the coal mines.

    Wang said entering 2004, except for one gas explosion at a town-level coal mine in Liupanshui city of Guizhou province on Feb. 11,there were no reports of accidents with death toll of more than 10people in China's mining sector. Enditem