At least 14 people were killed and two others trapped in a coal mine explosion in China on Tuesday, according to report.
The incident took place at about 1:30 am in Guizhou province, and rescue teams managed to rescue seven of 23 workers inside the Guanglong coal mine, in Anlong county, at the time of the explosion.
Emergency services found the bodies of 14 miners, while two other workers remained trapped underground.
On December 14, a coal mine in Sichuan province flooded, leaving at least five dead and 13 miners trapped, while 329 employees managed to escape.
China’s mines, especially those mining coal – the country’s main energy source – are among the world’s most dangerous and see high accident rates, although fatalities have fallen significantly in recent years.
In 2017, at least 18 people were dead in a coal mine accident in China’s Hunan province.
Earlier this year, 21 workers were killed after a roof collapsed at a coal mine in northwestern China.
In 2018, there were 224 accidents in Chinese coal mines with 333 deaths, a 0.9 per cent drop year-on-year in the number of accidents and a 13.1 per cent decrease in the number of dead, according to authorities.
(With inputs from agency)