Photo: Xinhua

China's State Council summoned officials from Southwest China's Chongqing Municipal Government on Sunday after two major coal mine accidents in two months that had killed at least 39 people, urging the city to rectify the serious workplace safety situation. 

The Chongqing Municipal Government was asked to face up to the severe coal mine safety situation. Huang Yuzhi, head of the National Coal Mine Safety Administration, chaired the talks.

During the talks, the commission required massive examinations of all coal mines in Chongqing to strengthen awareness of safety production, and phasing out of small-scale collieries, which have potentially high safety hazards.

Within the past two months, two major coal mine accidents have occurred in Chongqing, killing 16 and 23 people respectively. During the discussion, the council said that the two tragedies exposed the weak awareness of workplace safety among certain coal mines and loopholes during the inspections.

On Friday, the Diaoshuidong coal mine in Yongchuan district, which had been shut down for more than two months, had an accident involving carbon monoxide exceeding the limit and 24 people were trapped underground. Only one was rescued after two days' rescue. 

Sixteen of the victims are outside workers, who were dispatched to dismantle underground equipment, said Chen Gang, a coalminer of the mine. 

On September 27, a carbon monoxide overrun occurred in the Songzao coal mine, causing 17 people to be trapped, only one of whom escaped. After investigation, the accident was found to have been caused by a fire in the mine, which caused the coal to burn, producing toxic and harmful gases to flow back to the working area and poisoning people.

In the process of escaping, the workers found that some compressed oxygen cylinders had zero air pressure and were ineffective. A total of 16 people were killed and 38 others injured in the accident.