By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 26, 2015
BEIJING — Chinese rescuers pulled 11 workers to safety and located 18 others who were trapped after a mine collapsed in the eastern province of Shandong, state news media said Saturday.
The official Xinhua News Agency said all 29 workers were accounted for, but 18 remained trapped and could not be immediately rescued.
The Pingyi County government said that the gypsum mine was owned by the Yurong Commercial and Trade Company.
Xinhua said rescuers lifted one miner, whose leg was stuck under a boulder, from the shaft on Saturday morning.
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral that is widely used in construction.
The mine collapse came just days after from a man-made pileup of construction waste in Shenzhen killed one person and left 75 missing and presumed dead.
The authorities on Friday ruled that the landslide was an industrial accident, adding to China’s list of major man-made disasters in recent years. Last year, 931 people were killed in mine accidents throughout China.