Fatal accidents and deaths at non-coal mining firms nationwide declined in the first seven months but a senior safety official warned that the petroleum sector saw a drastic rise in fatalities and deaths.
Non-coal mining entities reported 1,035 fatal accidents across China with 1,238 deaths during the period.
Both statistics dropped by 23.8 percent and 20.5 percent from comparable figures for 2004, said Sun Huashan, deputy head of the General Administration of Work Safety, at an ongoing national meeting on work safety control in the non-coal mining industry and its relevant sectors held in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province in the northwest.
But he warned that there was a drastic rise in the number of accidents and deaths in the petroleum sector during the same period.
There were 23 accidents in the petroleum sector with 28 deaths from January to July, a whopping increase of 130 percent and 115.4 percent from the same period last year, respectively.
By late August, China has 101,000 non-mining entities, some 75 percent of which are small quarries.
Meanwhile, Bai Wenjie, head of the Coal Industry Bureau of Huangling County in the province, who is suspected of being responsible for a recent fatal coal mine gas blast in his county, was suspended from work on Saturday.
So far, altogether four local officials have been suspended from work over the Gouxi Coal Mine gas blast in the county, said officials at the Huangling County Committee of the Communist Party of China.
A circular issued by the Organizational Department of the CPC Huangling County Committee says that as the leader of the bureau in the county, Bai was responsible for the major gas blast which occurred last Thursday at the Gouxi Coal Mine, leaving 12 dead and two injured. But the accident was covered up until media reported the accident on Sunday.
Three other government officials, Li Fengtao, deputy head of the bureau; Xu Wenlong, head of Huangling County Station for Coal Mine Safety Inspection; and Zong Mingxue, deputy head of Cangcun township government, were also suspended from their posts.
They were sent to investigate shortly after the accident but failed to do so.
(Xinhua)