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.
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.
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.
(China Daily July 16, 2003)