An article saying that a Chinese miner was found alive after spending 17 years underground is fake.
The article, which bears a similar headline, was published on World News Daily Report, a fake news website.
“A group of coal miners from the western province of Xinjiang, had an unbelievable surprise when the gallery they were excavating opened up on a section of an old mine, that was abandoned 17 years ago after an earthquake that caused some large sections of the tunnels to collapse,” it reads. “While they were exploring the galleries, they stumbled upon Cheung Wai, a 59-year old survivor from the 1997 accident, obviously in a rather bad shape. He was immediately taken to the hospital where a complete evaluation of his physical and mental states will be done over the next weeks.”
The article then says that a magnitude-7.8 earthquake trapped 78 miners but he was the only survivor.
The website has a disclaimer, which reads: “World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction.”
The Chinese miner story also has no mainstream media coverage.
The coal industry in China is the world’s deadliest, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
Last year, the publication reported that about 1,049 miners were killed in accidents in 2013. A few years ago, that number was as high as 2,000 deaths per year, according to reports at the time.
“Accidents at China’s coal mines have caused more than 33,000 deaths in the last decade, according to data from the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety,” reads a report from the Journal last month.
In April, 26 miners were killed in an accident in southwestern Yunnan Province. Officials said that an early-morning explosion caused the mine to flood.
