Society

13 workers missing in flooded mine in C China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-21 17:07

CHANGSHA - Thirteen workers were still missing after two manganese mines in central China's Hunan Province were flooded on Tuesday evening, local authorities said Wednesday.

Water gushed into the two manganese mine pits run by Leixin Mining Development Co. and Wenhua Manganese Co. in Huayuan County of Xiangxi Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture at about 6:10 pm Tuesday.

He Zezhong, chief of Xiangxi Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China, has ordered an all-out effort to save the trapped miners while avoiding secondary disasters in the ongoing rescue operations.

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Further rescuers from Changsha and Xiangtan cities were en route to the site, Huayuan county government said in a statement.

Local work safety authorities in Huayuan were investigating the cause of the flooding. Huayuan in western Hunan is one of the regions with the largest manganese deposits in China.

Further details were not immediately known.