A coal mine head turned himself in to police early Tuesday after failing to report a landslide that left at least four people dead and another five missing on Friday, according to authorities in north China’s Shanxi Province.
Gao Yang, legal representative and general manager of Lyuxin coal mine, surrendered himself to police at 0:52 a.m. and confessed that 10 people had been buried in the accident, which occurred at around 3 p.m. on Aug. 11 at the open-pit coal mine in Heshun County, a spokesperson with the county government said.
One person has been rescued and four bodies have been retrieved, according to Gao.
A man who had been detained for “fabricating information online” about the accident was released Tuesday.
The county government had visited the landslide site twice to investigate the online report, but the company had told them no one had been buried in the landslide.
The county’s coal administration head Zhang Ruiqing, who led the investigations, has been removed from his post.
Rescue work and further investigation are under way.
Lyuxin coal mine, under the Shanxi Coal Transportation and Sales Group Co., Ltd., has an annual coal capacity of 2 million tonnes.
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