Chinese emergency teams are searching for 172 miners who were working underground when a coal mine flooded, state media has reported. Amid heavy rain in Xintai city, 450km (280 miles) south of Beijing, rescuers have already led 584 miners to safety, Xinhua news agency said. Senior Communist Party officials are now co-ordinating the rescue effort.
China's coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with more than 5,000 deaths reported annually.
"There were 756 miners working under the ground when the accident occurred," Zhang Dekuan, deputy secretary-general of the provincial government, said. Of these, 584 were rescued, he added.
Xinhua reported that the mine, in eastern China's Shandong province, was overrun with surface water at about 1430 local time (0630 GMT) on Friday. |