Rescuers in race against time to save trapped miners

Rescuers are racing to pump water from a flooded coal mine in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, where 22 miners remain trapped, local authorities said yesterday.

Rescuers head into the coal mine in southwest China’s Yunnan Province where 22 people remain trapped. The shaft in which they were working flooded early yesterday morning.

As of 7pm last night the 22 miners were “still out of contact” though the water level in the shaft in the Qilin District of Qujing City is dropping, said Zhang Lei, deputy head of the rescue headquarters.

Flooding hit the Xiahaizi mine about 4:50am yesterday, when 26 workers were working underground. Four workers were soon rescued.

“I’d never seen such a thing in my 20 years as a miner,” said Yin Wenping, one of the four survivors.

The 26 miners entered the mine at 2am yesterday, according to Yin, who was at a higher site with three others when the flooding happened in a lower shaft.

“I heard a blast and was waiting to collect the coal. I waited for half an hour but nothing came, so I went down and saw that several meters of the tunnel was flooded,” Yin said.

After reporting what he saw to his manager, Yin returned to the shaft.

“I stayed up all night hoping they would return safely,” he said.

More than 500 people and three high-power pumps are involved in the rescue effort, said Zhang, who is also vice mayor of Qujing.

Yang Bin, deputy head of the city’s coal mine bureau, said it will take six or seven hours to clear the 3,000 tons of water underground if all the pumps work well. But there is still a lot of uncertainty.

Medics are on standby and a station has been set up to provide emergency care, he said.

Qin Guangrong, Party secretary of the province, said a group has been set up to comfort the families of the trapped miners, some of whom are now at the site and waiting anxiously.

The head of the mine, which is owned by Liming Industrial Co, has been accused of delaying reporting the accident.

“The accident took place about 4am, but the district government didn’t hear about it until 7:50am, and the city government was only told at 9:10am,” Zhang said.

Police are questioning the manager of the mine, he said.