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Little Chance for Trapped Miners to Survive at Flooded Colliery in South China City

Posted on: Saturday, 16 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

Little chance for trapped miners to survive at flooded colliery in south China city

XINGNING, Guangdong, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Sixteen workers were still trapped with little chance to survive from Thursday's flooding at a colliery in Xingning City of Guangdong Province, an official with the State General Administration of Work Safety Supervision said at the spot Saturday.

By 9:00 Saturday morning, the minors had been trapped underground for more than 40 hours and rescue work was impeded by complicated geological conditions, said Xiao Wenru, head of the Administration's rescue section.

At 12:10 p.m. Thursday, flooding gushed into the Fusheng Coal Mine in Luogang Township of Xingning when the 16 miners were working underground, trapping them all.

Four trapped miners were from central China's Hunan Province, engaged in drilling work; and one of the remaining 12 who were from Meizhou of Guangdong were the engineer in charge of the measurement work for detonation.

More than 500 rescuers and officials have been working at the site but the underground mire has hampered the performance of water pumps and little rescue progress has been made.

More drainage equipment has arrived at the site to join the operation and rescuers have to try to pump out the slush first, said Xiao.

Preliminary investigations show that the accident was caused by the detonation which broke an underground cave full of water. Around the flooding area, cave-ins occurred, which added difficulties to the rescue work.

Near the shaft entry, a group of families and colleagues of the trapped workers are anxiously waiting for news of progress in the rescue work.

"I hope my father could come out as soon as possible," said 15- year-old Peng Jinbo, whose father Peng Xiangmei is among the trapped.

A worker surnamed Jian, from Hunan Province, had two of his fellow villagers trapped underground. He said, "Small-scale floods happened amid detonation several days earlier. But no measures were taken (to prevent the accident)."

Founded in October 1997, the Fusheng Coal Mine started operation in February 1999. The private colliery employs 54 workers and produces 30,000 tons of coal a year, with a production permit, work safety certificate and business license.

Zou Xuesong, owner of the colliery, holds a mine owner's qualification certificate. According to his younger brother, Zou was out for a business trip two days before the accident took place and cannot be reached. The police is hunting down the mine owner.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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