Seven Die in China Mining Accident

State media said that a mining tragedy occurred in southwest China on Wednesday, killing seven workers and trapping one more.

Workers at a coal mine in the city of Leshan, Sichuan province, were sealing a ventilation shaft when the event happened, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Although the site could not provide specifics, it did report that eight persons were initially trapped in the disaster.

Seven individuals had been found dead as of 2:00 pm, according to CCTV, and “one other trapped person is still being searched for with all-out efforts.”

Both mine safety in China and media coverage of significant incidents—many of which were previously unreported—have improved in recent decades.

However, accidents continue to happen frequently in an industry where safety protocols are frequently lax, especially at the most basic sites. A major disaster occurred in February of last year when dozens of people and vehicles were buried under a sudden collapse of a slope at an open-pit coal mine in the northern Inner Mongolia region; an official later stated that 53 people were either dead or missing when search and rescue operations ended two weeks later, according to state media.