A man nervously smoked a cigarette as he sat by a checkpoint, waiting for news of his older brother caught up in the country’s worst mining disaster in nearly two decades.
His 47-year-old sibling, a father of three, was working in the Liushenyu shaft in northern China’s Shanxi province on Friday when a catastrophic gas explosion ripped through the mine, killing at least 82 people.
A total of 247 workers were underground at the time, according to state media.
Emergency rescuers were racing to find two people still missing yesterday, state media reported, but it was unclear if the man’s brother was one of them – or if more people were indeed missing than had been reported.
Phone calls to the man’s brother “wouldn’t go through” since the explosion, he said, asking not to be named, while adding that his parents are still unaware that their older son is missing.
“I don’t dare tell them,” he said.
The man, along with a few other family members, milled around the checkpoint yesterday that prevented them from continuing up the road to the mine, hoping for information about their loved ones.
Police kept a watchful eye nearby, ordering reporters at the checkpoint to avoid talking to the families and leave the area.
The man said his brother, whose youngest child is just five, had been working at the mine for three to four years, earning around 7,000 to 10,000 yuan (RM4,085 to RM5,835) a month.
“I really hope nothing has happened to him,” he said.
“They say two people are missing, but who knows if that’s accurate? We honestly don’t know.”
He said he had “no idea how the accident actually happened” and hoped that his brother is safe.
As family members paced back and forth near the checkpoint, ambulances and police cars were allowed through.
Some relatives were seen wiping tears from their faces.
Rugged and mountainous Shanxi, one of China’s poorer provinces, is the centre of the country’s coal mining industry.
While mine safety in China has improved in recent decades, accidents still occur in an industry where safety protocols are often lax and regulations vague.
Chinese authorities have launched an investigation into the blast, saying initial findings showed the Tongzhou Group operating the mine had committed “serious illegal violations”.
“Those found responsible will be severely punished in accordance with laws and regulations,” officials told a news conference on Saturday.
A middle-aged woman sitting under a tree near the checkpoint waited for information about her husband, a coal miner who also remained unaccounted for.
“Worrying about it won’t do any good,” she said, not wanting to give her name.
“We’re already worried sick, but being anxious doesn’t change anything.”
Her husband of more than 20 years, who had been unreachable since the explosion, rarely talked about his job, she said.
“I’m really not in the mood to talk about this.” — AFP
