Coal mine tunnel collapse traps 40 workers in China

BEIJING – A tunnel at a coal mine in southwest China has collapsed and trapped 40 workers underground.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the tunnel at the Anlilai mine collapsed on Thursday afternoon in Guizhou province.

Xinhua says some miners were able to escape but around 40 others remained stuck in the mine and rescue work is under way.

China's coal mines are among the world's deadliest and suffer chronic explosions, cave-ins and flooding. Repeated safety crackdowns have lowered the death rate, but hundreds of fatalities still are reported every year.