Coal mine fire in southwest China kills 16 people

At least 16 people have been killed in a coal mine fire on Sunday in southwest China's Guizhou province, local officials said.

The fire broke out at the Shanjiaoshu Coal Mine at around 0010 GMT, the Panzhou City government said in a notice posted to its website on Sunday night.

"It was preliminarily determined that the conveyor belt caught fire, causing 16 people to be trapped," it added, with no further details on what was damaged or how the fire began.

Emergency personnel extinguished the blaze and temperatures at the site returned to normal, but "after preliminary verification, 16 people have no vital signs", the notice said.

The Panzhou City mine is about 3,600 kilometres southwest of the capital Beijing.

Deadly accidents

China operates thousands of coal mines.

While safety standards in the country's mining sector have improved in recent decades, accidents still frequently plague the industry, often due to lax enforcement of protocols, especially at the most rudimentary sites.

Last year, 245 people died in 168 accidents, according to official figures.