Two arrested over China mishaps

China mine accidents have killed thousands of workers. An old woman grieves over a trapped family member

By Staff and wire reports

GUANGXI, China -- Authorities have arrested the men blamed for a blast that killed 47 people and the cover-up of a tin mine accident that killed at least 70 others.

Police said jealousy and a desire for revenge drove one man to set off the blast, which devastated a northwestern Chinese village of cave dwellings in July.

A mine owner suspected of trying to cover up the Guangxi tin mine accident that killed scores has also been detained.

The central government sent an investigation team under State Economic and Trade Commission chief Li Rongrong after reports in state media that more than 300 people may have been trapped when the tin mine flooded on July 17.

Li Rongrong had ordered rescuers to pump all the water out of the mine to ascertain the true death toll.

Local safety officials had earlier said there was no evidence anyone died and called the media reports "nonsense."

But accusations of a cover-up arose after local journalists were barred from writing about the accident and national newspapers reported that mine owner Li Dongming had tried to bribe and threaten survivors to keep quiet.

"We suspect the mine owner of trying to cover up the accident but so far we haven't been able to ascertain whether local officials were involved," said an official at the Guangxi Economic and Trade Commission, which also sent investigators.

One local reporter said it could take weeks to uncover the truth about the accident.

"It's like a reservoir down there," said the reporter from the official newspaper People's Daily.

The Yangcheng Evening News reported that the death toll from the accident was at least 78.

It said the mine had 1,500 workers and that four teams of 70 to 90 people each were in the mine when it flooded.

Access to explosives

In a separate case, a man was arrested and accused of having caused an explosion in Shaanxi province's Mafang village.

It is the latest in a string of deadly incidents this year apparently caused by social malcontents who have easy access to explosives.

"(The suspect), Ma Hongqing, was under extreme pressure, his mood was abnormal and he swore he would get revenge," a policeman quoted an official statement as saying.

Ma, 51, had gone bankrupt through a series of business failures and set off the explosives -- illegally stored in a rival villager's cave dwelling -- out of extreme jealousy.

The official toll from the blast was 47 dead and 85 injured, but residents of the village said at the time they believed as many as three times that number had died.

The Mafang blast, which razed at least 30 cave houses cut out of loess hillsides, was at first labelled a mishap, then blamed on a rival of Ma Hongqing who had hidden the illegal explosives in his family's cave dwelling soon after the ban.

Reuters contributed to this report.