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Hundreds join China mine rescue | |
(about 16 hours later) | |
Nearly 1,000 rescuers are working around the clock to reach scores of coal miners trapped in a flooded pit in northern China, state media says. | |
But it could take them days before they reach the 153 miners. | |
A total of 261 people were in the mine in northern Shanxi province when water rushed in. More than 100 managed to escape but the rest were trapped. | |
Safety standards have improved over recent years, but China's mines are still the most deadly in the world. | |
The workers in this latest accident have been trapped since Sunday, but there are unconfirmed reports that water started to leak into Wangjialing mine a few days before. | |
Toxic gas | |
Additional pumps have now been taken to the state-run colliery - which is still under construction - to get rid of the water. | |
Rescuers have also started drilling a hole to open up a drainage channel to divert the flood water. | |
But water is not the only problem. | |
"The coal mine has a high concentration of gas. Rescuers have to face the danger of toxic gas, while fighting the water," Liu Dezheng, spokesman for the rescue effort, told the state-run Xinhua news agency. | |
No one knows for sure if the miners, thought to be trapped in a number of underground locations, are dead or alive. | |
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao ordered local authorities to spare no effort to save them, Xinhua said. | |
The mine covers 180 sq/km (70 sq miles). | |
Most of those trapped in the shafts are migrant workers from Shanxi, Hebei, Hunan and Guizhou provinces, a rescuer said, quoted by Xinhua. | |
As rescue efforts continued, Xinhua announced that two workers trapped in another flooded mine, in Henan province, were pulled out alive on Tuesday - eight days after their mine was inundated | |
But earlier this month rescue efforts for 31 miners trapped when a coal mine flooded in the Inner Mongolia region of China were halted after two weeks when no sign of life was found. | |
According to official figures, 2,631 coal miners died in 1,616 mine accidents in China in 2009, down 18% from the previous year. | According to official figures, 2,631 coal miners died in 1,616 mine accidents in China in 2009, down 18% from the previous year. |