Rescuers were trying on Thursday to reach five workers who are trapped in a subsea pipeline that flooded off south China's Hainan Province.

Yuan Guangping, Vice Mayor of the provincial capital Haikou, told Xinhua the five workers could be dead as the pipeline and a deep shaft connected to it were filled with seawater.

Six workers were in the pipeline of a sewage treatment plant when the flooding happened at 7:45 PM on Wednesday. One of the workers managed to escape.

A local navy unit has sent four divers to search for the breach on the pipeline on Thursday, and professional rescuers were traveling to the site.

Li Quan, a designer of the pipeline and the shaft, said the shaft was more than 20 meters deep and the pipeline connected to the bottom of the shaft. The pipeline is 1.6 meters in diameter and 1,350 meters long.

(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2009)