Two more missing after mine blast

Rescuers in northern China searched yesterday for two people still missing after a gas explosion killed 82 in a mine that authorities said was beset by serious safety violations.

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The blast at the Liushenyu shaft in Shanxi province on Friday, was the country’s worst mining disaster in nearly two decades, with 247 workers underground at the time, authorities said.

Journalists saw relatives anxiously waiting by a checkpoint blocking the road leading to the mine yesterday, hoping for news of their loved ones.

One man, smoking nervously on a curb, said calls to his brother - a father of three - “wouldn't go through” since the blast.