Twenty people were killed after two carriages taking mine workers back to the ground crashed in an illegally-run coal mine in China's north-west Gansu province early on Tuesday, state media reported.
A steel cable pulling a locomotive that carried 34 miners in two carriages snapped in a pit in Baiyin city near Lanzhou. The two carriages slipped and overturned, sending all the workers aboard down into the pit. Most of the 14 survivors pulled out of the pit were in hospital with injuries, the Xinhua news agency reported quoting local officials.
The coal mine, run by Qusheng Coal Mining Co., was operating illegally as it was one of the 55 mines safety authorities ordered to halt production for an industrial reshuffle. The planned reshuffle was aimed at incorporating the 55 small mines into ten larger ones.
The Qusheng pit began operation in 2003 and has a designed annual output of 90,000 tons.
In the wake of the accident, the provincial government of Gansu has ordered temporary shutdown of all mines with annual output below 300,000 tons for a safety overhaul, the report said.
Colliery accidents are common in China as safety norms are often ignored in the quest for coal to meet the country's growing energy demand.
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