BEIJING — Two people died and 18 were trapped in a coal mine in eastern China on Sunday after a rock burst destroyed part of a mining tunnel, state broadcaster China Central Television reported. The spontaneous fracturing of rock — a kind of earthquake induced by excavation — took place around 11 p.m. Saturday in Shandong province. More than 300 people were working inside the mine at the time of the rock burst, and most were successfully lifted to safety. The incident “has nothing to do with workers’ operations,” an official with the Shandong Coal Mine Safety Supervision Bureau told The Associated Press by phone. Ventilation has returned to around 200 metres (656 feet) of the damaged tunnel, Xinhua said.

Source: National Post October 21, 2018 05:17 UTC