BEIJING, March 14 (UPI) -- Three separate coal mine blasts in China killed at least 37 miners in two days, state media reported Tuesday.
Seventeen workers were killed, five remained unaccounted for and twelve were rescued after a 4 a.m. blast Sunday at a mine in Inner Mongolia, the State Administration of Work Safety announced on its Web site.
In Hunan province the same day, a blast killed 11 underground workers in the Gaoping coal mine in Yongxing county.
Officials from the Hunan Coal Mine Safety Department had temporarily suspended the mine's work safety license after a March 2 inspection found substandard safety equipment and "serious hidden safety dangers."
In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, nine miners died when another blast ripped through a coal mine Monday afternoon, Xinhua reported.
In November, 171 miners were killed in a mine explosion in another coal mine in the same area.
China's coal mining industry is the most dangerous in the world, with government statistics showing nearly 6,000 people were killed in accidents last year.
