China's State Administration of Coal Mine Work Safety says that 2,411 coal mines have been closed due to safety problems, and a namelist of the first batch of 1,044 closed coal mines was released.

59 of the mines were in Beijing, 125 in Hebei Province, 386 in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 70 in Jiangxi Province, 58 in Hubei Province, and 135 in Sichuan Province.

Xinhua reports that by December 19, altogether 12,990 coal mines were ordered to stop production due to safety problems and 2,411 of them have been closed down.

Official statistics show that in the first nine months of 2005, 4,228 people had been killed in 2,337 coal mine accidents in China.