Society
No signs of life detected in flooded coal mine
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-07 14:01
 |
Large Medium Small |
WUHAI, Inner Mongolia - No signs of life was detected in a flooded coal mine where 31 miners have been trapped since March 1 in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
Rescuers began looking for signs of life since Saturday but they didn't find any as of 11 am Sunday, said Wu Qingfeng, a spokesman with the emergency rescue headquarters at Luotuoshan Coal Mine in Wuhai, a city about 600 kilometers from the regional capital, Hohhot.
Underground water flooded a pit of Luotuoshan Coal Mine in Wuhai city on March 1 when 77 miners were working.
One miner was confirmed dead, 45 were rescued while 31 more were still trapped underground.
The trapped miners are from Ningxia Hui autonomous region and provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi and Henan, according to a full name list published Saturday.
Luotuoshan Coal Mine, which is still under construction, is owned by Wuhai Energy Co Ltd under Shenhua Group Corp Ltd, the country's largest coal producer.
Construction of the mine started in 2006. It is designed to produce 1.5 million tons of coal a year.
Last year, Inner Mongolia replaced the northern Shanxi province to become China's leading coal base with 637 million tons of output.
