4 accidents kill 40, trap 11 miners
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In other accidents on Sunday, two miners were killed in a blast in a coal mine in Hunan province in Central China, while in Northwest China's Gansu Province, two were killed after 13 miners were trapped underground by a coal mine flooding.
On Saturday, eight workers were killed after a fire engulfed a coal mine in Central China's Henan province.
On June 21, an explosion killed 47 coal miners at a privately owned mine in Henan's Pingdingshan city, when gunpowder that was stored underground exploded. A police investigation found that the mine was operating illegally, as its license had expired.
In March, a flood in the huge, unfinished Wangjialing coal mine in the industry's northern heartland of Shanxi left 153 workers trapped underground. A total of 115 were recovered alive, in what was seen as a miraculous rescue.
The death toll from coal mine accidents was 2,631 in 2009.
Zhao Tiechui, head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, said in February that China would need at least 10 years to "fundamentally improve" safety and reduce the frequency of such disasters.
As part of efforts to improve safety standards, the central government has levied heavy fines on mine operators and implemented region-wide shutdowns following serious accidents.
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