(Yicai) March 12 -- Seven people have been reported dead so far after a gas explosion caused a coal mine in China’s eastern Anhui province to collapse yesterday.

The mine in question is the Xieqiao Coal Mine, which belongs to Huainan Mining Group, the controlling shareholder of Chinese energy giant Huaihe Energy Group, a staffer at Huaihe Energy told Yicai. Rescue efforts are still underway.

In the past two years, the Xieqiao Coal Mine received two administrative penalties for production safety risks, with fines of over CNY200,000 (USD27,840) each time, according to a public document.

Huainan Mining owns 11 coal mines, and the Xieqiao Coal Mine is the company’s second-largest one by annual output. However, the production volume of the Xieqiao Coal Mine declined to 8.5 million tons a year in 2022 from when it started operation in 1997.

Editor: Futura Costaglione