Society
Knocks heard from flooded mine
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-03 09:49
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 A rescuer fastens pipes at the Wangjialing coal mine in Xiangning county, Shanxi province, on Friday. [Jason Lee / Reuters] |
Fresh hope for 153 Shanxi miners stuck underground for five days
XIANGNING, Shanxi - Rescuers on Friday heard the sound of knocking on pipes at a flooded north China coal mine, where 153 miners have been trapped for five days.
The rescuers knocked on the drill pipe to respond, Pan said.
He said the rescue team sent 300 bags of glucose, each 200 ml, down the 250-meter pit.
Rescuers have been drilling holes to pump out water and send down food.
An iron wire was found attached at the end of a drill pipe when it was lifted to the surface at 3 pm.
Pan said the wire was apparently tied on the pipe by the trapped miners.
At about 1:40 pm on Sunday, underground water gushed into the pit of Wangjialing Coal Mine, which was under construction, when 261 miners were working underground. Altogether, 108 were lifted safely to the surface.
About 3,000 rescuers are racing against time to pump out water and reach the trapped miners.
The water level underground had dropped by 2.6 meters by Friday noon after a total of 57,900 cubic meters of water had been pumped the shaft.
The 153 workers are believed to be trapped on nine different platforms in the mine, which was flooded with up to 140,000 cubic meters of water, the equivalent of more than 55 Olympic swimming pools, state television has reported.
Some of the platforms were above the underground water level, a spokesman for the rescue headquarters, Liu Dezheng, told the media on Wednesday.
"It is believed that some workers may have a chance of survival," Liu said. "We will go all out to save them."
The mine, which straddles Xiangning county of Linfen city, and Hejin, a county-level city within Yuncheng city, covers about 180 square km.
The mining zone was estimated to have more than 2.3 billion tons of coal reserves, including 1.04 billion tons of proven reserves, according to the company's official website.
The mine, affiliated with the State-owned Huajin Coking Coal Co Ltd, is a major project approved by the provincial government. It is expected to produce 6 million tons of coal annually once in operation.
If the trapped workers cannot be saved, the accident will be China's worst mining disaster in more than two years.
In August 2007, a total of 181 workers died at two flooded coal mines - 172 at one mine - in Xintai, eastern Shandong Province.
Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang has demanded the release of a list of workers trapped underground.
Meanwhile, the death toll from a gas explosion at a coal mine in Central China's Henan province on Wednesday had risen to 19, and about 24 people were believed still trapped underground, local authorities said on Friday.
China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, despite a multiple year government effort to reduce fatalities. Most accidents are blamed on failure to follow safety rules or lack of required ventilation, fire controls and equipment.
Accidents killed 2,631 coal miners in China last year, down from 6,995 deaths in 2002, the most dangerous year on record, according to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.
Xinhua, China Daily
