BEIJING (Reuters) - A blast in an illegal iron mine in northern China killed at least 24 people and injured five over the weekend, state media reported on Tuesday.
The mine in Wu'an city, Hebei province, was disguised as aboar farm in order to deceive authorities, Xinhua news agencysaid in its report on Sunday's explosion.
"The owner has violated the law by illegally exploring thestate-owned resources. To cover their illegal actions, theyhave built three walls to cut the farm out from the outside,"Xinhua quoted Wang Haibo, an official with the Wu'an citygovernment, as saying.
China is home to the world's deadliest coal mining industryand despite government safety drives has a grim record ofindustrial accidents, in part because high prices for resourcesare tempting owners to produce illegally or beyond safe limits.
The owner of the Wu'an farm, which was privately held, fledthe scene and was still at large.
The explosion happened in a tunnel whose entrance waslocated in one of the pigpens, the report said, but the causeof the blast was still unknown and the local government wasinvestigating.
(Reporting by Lindsay Beck; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
