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BEIJING - Hundreds of rescuers in central China are struggling to save 69 miners who have been trapped underground by flood waters for more than 72 hours, local media said on Wednesday.
The miners, trapped in the Zhijian colliery in Shan county in Henan province since Sunday morning when a flash flood surged through an old shaft, were alive and could be reached by a landline telephone, but they were weak and cold, the Beijing News said.
Rescuers have sent about 600kg of milk to the miners via a hose installed down through a ventilation pipe, the newspaper said. The miners drank it with their helmets.
More than 500 colleagues have been working around the clock to pump out flood water and remove mud and rocks that blocked a 280-metre passage between where the trapped miners were and the pit entrance, the newspaper said.
"It is estimated they can be rescued by midday," the Beijing News quoted a rescuer as saying.
There were 102 miners working underground when the accident happened. Thirty-three escaped.
Police officers were called in to remove explosives stored in the state-owned mine, which has a designed annual production capacity of 210,000 tonnes but actually produces 300,000 tonnes a year, to prevent secondary accidents, Xinhua said.
China's coal mining industry is the deadliest in the world, with a total of 4746 people killed in thousands of blasts, floods and other accidents in 2006. Soaring demand and profits have driven the mines to push production beyond safety limits.
- REUTERS
