TAIYUAN, July 24 (Xinhua) — Five people who were responsible for a coal mine blast that claimed 26 lives in north China in March have been sentenced to terms ranging from 5 years to life imprisonment, a court announced on Tuesday.

    Zhou Xiaogen, former owner of the Yujialing Coal Mine in Yaodu district of Linfen, Shanxi Province, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the Linfen Intermediate People’s Court said.

    It said Zhou operated the mine without license and failed to ensure work safety in the mine. He was also fined a total of three million yuan (394,000 U.S. dollars).

    Zhou Linggen, who was in charge of general supervision and procuring explosives, was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined 50,000 yuan (6,578 U.S. dollars). The court found that he had bought substandard explosives from unauthorized sources.

    Ren Maosheng, Li Mingshun and Zhao Qijin, who were in charge of work safety, were respectively jailed for eight years, seven years and five years.

    A month before the accident, the three safety directors received three advisories from the district coal mine administration, which required the colliery to stop production. They acknowledged receipt of the advisories, but allowed operations to continue, the court said.

    The accident happened 11:00 a.m. on March 28, when miners were using explosives in the mine shaft. The blasts ignited gas, which had gathered to dangerously high levels in the poorly-ventilated shafts.

    The mine company claimed its annual output capacity was 150,000 tons, but its production licence, which showed an annual capacity of 90,000 tons, had expired.

    Seven Communist Party of China (CPC) and government officials, including district chief Su Qingping, and director Zhao Chenghe and deputy director Cui Junyu of the district coal mine administration, were removed from their posts after the accident.

    In early July, three people were sentenced from 20 years to life imprisonment after the court found them responsible for an accident in Pudeng Coal Mine in Puxian County of Linfen that killed 30 miners.

    In the Makulue colliery in Liuliang City in Shanxi, rescuers are searching for nine miners who are still trapped after a flash flood swamped the mine on Sunday evening.

    Figures from the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) show coal mine accidents killed 4,746 people in 2006.