(ANSA) - BEIJING, DECEMBER 25 - Relief efforts have been mobilized in China to extract 18 people trapped underground after the collapse of a gold mine in the northwest region of Xinjiang.
The official media reported it.
The collapse occurred around 1:40 pm on Saturday in Yining county in the Kazakh autonomous prefecture of Illi, Xinhua news agency reported.
The area is located about a hundred kilometers from Kazakhstan.
In all, 40 people were working underground when the accident occurred.
Twenty-two miners have been brought to the surface but 18 remain trapped.
"Rescue operations are underway to recover the miners," Xinhua reported.
Mining safety has improved in recent decades in China but they are still quite frequent.
In December 2021, two miners stranded in a flooded coal mine in Shanxi died and 20 others were rescued after rescue operations.
In September last year, 19 miners trapped underground after a coal mine collapse in Qinghai province were found dead after a lengthy search.
(HANDLE).
