The Work Safety Committee of the State Council has summoned the officials of southwestern China's Guizhou Province over frequent occurrence of coal mine accidents in the area in the last two years, China's Ministry of Emergency Management said on Wednesday.

Noting that coal mine incidents in Guizhou caused the most deaths nationwide in 2018, the safety bureau said the accidents in Guizhou exposed insufficient awareness of coal mine safety work, unscientific development planning of coal industry as well as unreasonable policies.

It urged the officials to adhere to the concept of safe development, unswervingly push forward the transformation and upgrade of the coal industry, and continue to promote the construction of coal mine safety infrastructure.

According to statistics released by Guizhou Coal Mine Safety Supervision Bureau, the province witnessed 26 accidents in coal mines with 43 deaths in 2018. At a national level, 224 accidents caused 333 deaths. In 2019, the statistics showed that at least 48 people died from coal mine incidents.