BEIJING - Coal dust caught fire in a mine in northeast China, sparking an explosion that killed at least 68 people and left 79 missing, the government said Monday, as the country's leadership called for tighter work safety measures.
Some 221 miners were underground when the blast occurred late Sunday at the Dongfeng Coal mine in Qitaihe, a city in Heilongjiang province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Seventy-four miners had been rescued by Monday, it said.
Xinhua said a 269-member rescue team was searching for the trapped miners and that Li Yizhong, minister of the State Administration of Work Safety, told them to "spare no efforts" to save the workers.
