More than 100 people across China have died in industrial accidents due to lax safety standards over the past two weeks, including three incidents on Saturday alone, at a coal mine, a chemical factory and a workshop.
On Saturday, 32 people were confirmed dead following an explosion at a coal mine in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The explosion happened around midday Saturday at the Baoma Mining Co Ltd in the city of Chifeng.
Authorities confirmed that a gas explosion was to blame. There were 181 people working underground at the time of the accident, with 149 workers managing to escape to the surface. The incident is under investigation.
Around the same time on Saturday, five people died after a workshop collapsed in Baigudui village in Jinan, East China's Shandong Province. Four others were transferred to hospital. The cause is still under investigation, China Central Television reported.
The third fatal accident on Saturday occurred when a fuel truck exploded inside a chemical plant in Dongying, Shandong Province, injuring five people, news site chinanews.com reported.
Separately, 21 people were confirmed dead and one is still trapped after a coal mine blast in North China's Heilongjiang Province on Tuesday. The explosion occurred at a private coal mine in Qitaihe, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Four suspects, including the mine owner and three managers, were arrested by local police.
Police have also arrested nine people in connection with the most serious accident of the last two weeks, the collapse of a cooling tower construction platform on November 24 in Fengcheng, East China's Jiangxi Province, which killed 74 workers.
The nine held liable for the accident include senior managers from the construction company and those responsible for safety supervision, after reports alleged that the tragedy was caused by pressure to complete the project quickly.
Twenty-two victims came from Cheng'an county in North China's Hebei Province, with seven from the same extended family from Baifangtuan village.
In 2015, some 66,000 people died in 280,000 work-related accidents, according to Yang Huanning, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, the Xinhua News Agency reported in September.
