No response from workers inside flooded China mine

XIANGNING, China – Rescuers pumped water from a flooded mine in northern China where time is running out for 153 trapped workers as efforts stretched into a second day with no communication from those stuck deep underground.

Some 1,000 rescue workers were rotating on shifts to try to drain enough water to reach the trapped miners, but the rescue effort could take days. It was unclear if anyone was still alive in the shafts, some of which extended a half-mile into the earth.

The accident could be one of the worst mining disasters in recent years if rescue efforts fail and would set back marked improvements in mining safety.

“Their situation until now is still unknown so that is making everyone very worried,” said Liu Dezheng, a chief engineer with the work safety bureau in northern China’s Shanxi province, where the mine is located.

The flood at the state-owned Wangjialing coal mine may have started Sunday afternoon when workers dug into a network of old, water-filled shafts. Such derelict tunnels are posing new risks to miners across China even as the country improves safety in its notoriously hazardous mines, where accidents kill thousands each year.

China’s State Administration of Work Safety said 261 workers were inside the mine when it flooded, and 108 escaped or were rescued.

“We can’t get in touch with the people down there,” said miner Li Jianhong, 33, who was helping move pipes to suck water from the shaft. “If they haven’t drowned yet, they might have suffocated from a lack of oxygen.”

He was just about to head into the mine for his shift on Sunday when he heard that “something happened” underground. As he and his colleagues gathered for a meeting, they received a call from some of the trapped miners.

“We just received one phone call from them and after that there was no more contact. Those poor people,” he said.

Liu said any rescue was still days away and the rescuers were rotating on four-hour shifts to get enough rest in the days ahead.