Beijing, June 04: Rescuers were striving Friday to save 11 workers trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern China, the latest accident to hit the notoriously dangerous industry, an official and state media said.
Some 400 rescuers were sent to the flooded pit in the city of Jincheng in Shanxi province — China’s coal-production heartland — to try to drain the floodwaters and reach the missing miners, Xinhua news agency reported.
An official with the Shanxi work safety bureau confirmed the men were still trapped, but refused any further comment about the incident.
It was not immediately clear when the flood occurred. Xinhua reported that a total of 75 miners were in the pit at the time, and that 64 had escaped.
The cause of the flood remained unclear, the report said.
Around 2,600 people were killed last year in China’s vast mining industry due mainly to lax regulation, corruption and inefficiency, according to official figures.
In March, a flood at the huge, unfinished Wangjialing mine in Shanxi left 153 workers trapped underground. A total of 115 were recovered alive in a rare successful rescue for the accident-prone industry.
As part of its efforts to increase safety standards, the central government has levied heavy fines and implemented region-wide mining shutdowns following serious accidents.
But the action has resulted in the under-reporting of accidents as mine bosses seek to limit economic losses, labour rights groups maintain.
—Agencies