Rescuers raced yesterday to free 153 coal miners trapped by a flood that may have started when workers digging a new mine in China accidentally broke into a network of old, water-filled shafts.
Such derelict tunnels are posing new risks to miners across China even as the country ramps up safety in its notoriously hazardous mines, where accidents kill thousands each year.
Rescuers raced to pump water from the Wangjialing coal mine in Shanxi Province that started flooding on Sunday afternoon, officials said. The state-owned mine about 650km southwest of Beijing was under construction and had been scheduled to start production this year, the China Daily reported.
PHOTO: AFP
The accident could be one of the worst mining disasters in recent years if rescue efforts fail.
Some 261 workers were inside the mine when it flooded, and 108 escaped or were rescued, China’s State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on its Web site early yesterday.
At the Wangjialing mine, located at the end of a long winding mountain road, rescue workers strapped metal pipes and other parts of a pump onto a metal trolley and pushed it along rail tracks into the entrance, where it was lowered into the shaft.
About 30 people, many of them miners, stood quietly behind the police cordon in a light drizzle watching the rescuers work.
Fan Leisheng, one of the miners who escaped, described the sudden rush of water that tore through the mine.
“It looked like a tidal wave and I was so scared,” Fan told China Central Television. “I immediately ran away and looked back to see some others hanging behind. I shouted at them to get out. It was unbelievable because I got out from 1,000 meters underground.”
Xinhua news agency reported that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) ordered authorities to “spare no effort” in saving the trapped workers.
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