One hundred and seventy-two miners were trapped in a flooded
coal mine in east China's Shandong Province, authoritative sources said
Saturday.
The flooding occurred at around 2:30 p.m. Friday in the coal
mine of Huayuan Mining Co. Ltd (formerly known as Zhangzhuang coal
mine) in Xintai City, about 150 kilometers south of Jinan,
Shandong's capital.?
A total of 756 miners were working underground at the time of
the flooding and 584 managed to escape after the accident, Xu
Qinyu, general manager of the company said.
Torrential rain swept Xintai on Friday and early Saturday with a
precipitation of 232 millimeters, triggering flash flood and a
50-meter breach on a levee of the swollen Wenhe River in the
region.
Floodwater from the Wenhe River swamped the coal mine via an old
shaft. The rain ended around 7:00 a.m. Saturday.
By 8:50 a.m., the working places under the mine have been all
inundated, according to the rescue headquarters.
Wang Ziqi, director of the Shandong coal mine safety
administration, said the trapped miners had only slim chances of
survival.
Most of the trapped workers were from rural areas in Tai'an City
and surrounding areas, said Wang Junmin, vice governor of
Shandong.
About 2,000 Chinese People's Liberation Army troops, armed
police and miners have closed up a 30-meter section of the breached
levee of the Wenhe River by midday Saturday.
The closure of the breach is crucial to the rescue efforts and
it will stop water from continuing to flow into the mine, according
to rescuers.
Floodwater at the breach site has risen to two meters high,
inundating trees near the bank.
Zhang Yulin, a worker with a nearby coal mine, said he was
called up to close the breached levee around 3 a.m. Saturday with
others.
Meanwhile, more than 50 workers were busy installing pipes to
pump water from the flooded shaft.
The rescue headquarters has ordered all coal mines near the
banks of the Wenhe River to stop production and evacuate all
workers.
Residents in the low-lying areas downstream were also told to be
ready to evacuate to prevent casualties.
In a separate accident in Xintai, nine people were trapped in
the Minggong coal mine after it flooded Friday because of the
rainstorms.
Ninety-five people were working underground when the accident
happened. Eighty-six have been lifted alive. Rescue work is
underway.
Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety
and Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine
Safety, have rushed to the site to oversee rescue efforts.
The work safety watchdog issued on Saturday an emergency notice
urging coal mines to draw lessons from the Huayuan mine accident
and immediately take preventive measures against
rainstorm-triggered floods.
Huayuan Mining Co. Ltd is a licensed enterprise with an annual
capacity of 750,000 tons.
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2007)
