The Chinese Xinjiang province, in the western part of the country, witnessed a violent explosion in a coal mine that killed 21 workers. According to the Xinhua news agency, quoted by ABC News, the accident occurred in the Baiyanggou pit, last Friday (13).

The local authorities revealed that 34 miners were working underground at the time of the blast, but 12 of them managed to escape, leaving 22 miners trapped. Only one of them survived.

The records throughout the years show that mining accidents are common in China, the world’s largest consumer of coal. The country is also known for its ability to “ignore” safety regulations.

Thanks to these reckless actions, 1,384 people were officially killed in coal mining accidents during 2012. However, several human rights groups and other organizations assure the real number of deaths is actually much higher. Some mining companies tend to underreport the accidents at their pits, making the records look smaller.

The national authorities shut down more than 600 small mining operations last year in an effort to diminish these numbers, but the measure is not having the desired effect.