Twenty-eight miners remain trapped in two collieries in Central China's Henan
Province and Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, which were flooded on Sunday
and Monday.
Rescuers are working against clock.
[cnphoto]
On Sunday, 42 miners were
working beneath the shaft at the Dongfeng Coal Mine in Henan's Dengfeng when
flooding suddenly occurred, said an official with the Henan Provincial Bureau
for the Supervision of Coal Mine Security.
Only half of the victims have escaped from the dangerous pit and rescuers are
continuing their search efforts, he said.
At press time, most of the flooded water in the main corridor has been pumped
out and rescuers are busy reinforcing passages to safely rescue the trapped
miners beneath the ground, Liu, an official with Dengfeng Coal Mine Bureau, told
China Daily.
Officials from the bureau and other relevant provincial departments had
rushed to the site to organize the rescue operations, officials said.
Relatives of trapped miners are waiting beside the
pithead.
Meanwhile, the owner and other administrative personnel of the township-run
mine fled the site, making it hard for rescuers to know the pit's situation.
In another flooding accident, rescue workers in Baishui County in Northwest
China's Shaanxi Province have been working against the clock to save the lives
of the seven missing miners, reported the Xinhua News Agency.
The water leakage occurred at 10 am on Monday when workers at the county-run
Fengjiahe Coal Mine in Dayang Village set off explosive charges above ground,
local police said.
A total of 22 miners were working in the mine, but 11 managed to escape,
sources said. Later, another four coal miners were rescued and hospitalized.
The rescuers are now pumping water in the corridor, said an official with the
Shaanxi Provincial Bureau for Coal Mine Safe Production Supervision.
The causes of the two accidents are under investigation, sources
said.
