Rescuers finally succeeded Saturday morning in pulling out three
coal miners who have been trapped in a flooded shaft for five days
in central China's Hunan Province, local authorities said.
The trapped miners were very weak and rushed to a local hospital
immediately.
Too much silt underground had hampered the rescue operation,
rescuers said. To date, three miners of the 12 trapped had been
pulled out alive and bodies of five others were found with the rest
four still missing.
The coal mine flood occurred at around 3:40 PM on Monday at
Changcheng Mine in Huangfengqiao town, Zhuzhou city when 31 miners
were working underground.
Rescue teams have been dispatched from neighboring cities to
rescue the trapped miners, but heavy rain has hampered their
efforts for a while.
The Changcheng Mine is a private mine with a designed production
capacity of 30,000 tons a year. Its license and certificates have
not expired.
(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2007)