BEIJING, March. 23 -- The search for survivors of Saturday's coal mine blast in Shanxi Province ended yesterday as all 69 trapped miners were confirmed dead, State television reported.

The search for survivors of Saturday's coal mine blast in Shanxi Province ended yesterday as all 69 trapped miners were confirmed dead, State television reported. (Xinhua)

    Meanwhile, it emerged that the colliery where the tragedy took place was actually ordered to suspend production last November because of safety problems, but the order was disregarded.

    After 65 bodies had been recovered by Monday night, the other four miners who remained trapped underground were confirmed dead, according to China Central Television.

    The deadly blast took place on Saturday afternoon in the Xishui colliery in Shuozhou, a city in the key coal-producing province of Shanxi, burying 49 workers underground.

    The explosion also caused the collapse of a neighbouring mine, where 20 miners were trapped.

    The local government has begun investigating and taking care of the families of the victims.

    The Xishui colliery was riddled with problems such as outdated technology, haphazard management and illegal use of explosives, the Xinhua News Agency quoted Zhao Tiechui, head of the local government's investigation team, as saying.

Relatives of a victim in a coal mine blast in Shuozhou, North China's Shanxi Province weeps March 19. (newsphoto)

    A safety inspector sent by the local mine safety administration to the colliery was also found to be "seriously negligent," according to Zhao, who is also director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.

    "It provided the mine owners with the opportunity to defy government supervision and produce without authority," he was quoted as saying.

    Technical details of the cause of the tragedy, which Zhao described as "an extremely big gas explosion," have yet to be determined, according to Xinhua.

    Local police in Shuozhou detained four people for investigation on Saturday, shortly after the blast.

    The Supreme People's Procuratorate has also ordered local procurators in the province to probe any official negligence that may have contributed to the accident, the Beijing News reported yesterday.

    "We are very concerned about the incident, and will send our men to oversee (the judicial investigation) if necessary," the newspaper quoted an official from the Supreme Procuratorate as saying.

    In a strongly worded "urgent notice" released on Monday, the Shanxi provincial government ordered a sweeping scrutiny of lurking threats to coal mine safety across the whole province.

    It also warned officials against colluding with illegal mine operators by accepting bribes, and offered a reward of up to 50,000 yuan (US$6,000) to those tipping off the government about cases of illegal mining.

    "The provincial government is resorting to different approaches to try to prevent the occurrence of accidents," an official of the Shuozhou Coal Mine Safety Administration told China Daily yesterday.

    China's miners have experienced a string of disasters since late last year, including a gas explosion that killed 148 in Henan Province on October 20, a blast in a coal mine in Shaanxi Province that killed 166 workers on November 28, and the worst in half a century that killed 214 people on February 14 in Liaoning Province.

    Premier Wen Jiabao promised at the National People's Congress earlier this month that the central government will spend 3 billion yuan (US$360 million) this year upgrading safety measures at coal mines to "truly make coal mining safer."

(Source: China Daily)