Chinese authorities reported that at least 82 miners died in a gas explosion at the Liushenyu coal mine in Qinyuan County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, on Friday evening, May 22, 2026, marking the country’s deadliest mining disaster since 2009. The blast occurred at 7:29 p.m. local time while 247 workers were underground, and as of Sunday, May 24, two miners remained missing and 128 others were hospitalized, primarily for inhaling toxic gases. Security footage captured a sudden, powerful blast that immediately filled tunnels with blinding smoke, and investigators noted that underground carbon monoxide sensors had triggered alarms indicating gas levels vastly exceeded safety limits moments before the explosion, but the mine did not stop operations.
Preliminary findings released by local officials and state media indicated that the coal mine enterprise, operated by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group, had committed “serious illegal violations”. Initial probes uncovered concealed mining tunnels, falsified drawings, outsourced and unregistered miners, and failures to provide required life-saving location trackers. State broadcaster CCTV reported that the official system logged just 124 workers entering the mine with personnel positioning cards, but checks found 247 were actually underground, with many working in “hidden” coal pits without location trackers or respirators. The mine had been on China’s national disaster-prone list since 2024 due to severe safety hazards and high gas content.
In response, authorities suspended all four mines operated by Tongzhou Group and detained the company’s de facto controller, key executives, and other responsible personnel. President Xi Jinping ordered an “all-out” rescue effort and a thorough investigation, calling for strict accountability and for authorities to learn from the accident and intensify efforts to eliminate workplace risks. A total of 755 emergency and medical personnel were dispatched to the site, with mobile hyperbaric oxygen chambers and 86 ambulances deployed. Rescue efforts were complicated by flooded tunnels and two collapsed tunnel floors that revealed previously uncharted hidden passages.
The State Council launched a “rigorous and uncompromising” probe, and the accident has triggered wider safety inspections across Shanxi, China’s premier coking coal producing province. As of May 27, 113 coking coal mines in the region had suspended operations for checks, reducing daily raw coking coal supply by an estimated 288,000 tons. State media editorials called for a shift in priorities from development to safety, noting that while Shanxi had built around 370 intelligent mines with 5G and automated systems by late November, the Liushenyu mine remained dependent on manual labour and was riddled with violations.
Changzhi Mayor Chen Xiangyang apologized to the public and the victims’ families, and confirmed that all 128 injured miners were in stable condition, including four previously critical patients. The disaster is now China’s worst mining accident since a 2009 gas explosion at the Xinxing Mine in Heilongjiang killed 108 people.
