Rescuers ordered to enter China's flooded mine
Posted: 03 April 2010 1231 hrs
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Rescuers arrive at the Wangjialing coal mine, in northern China's Shanxi province
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BEIJING: Rescuers at a colliery in China have been ordered to enter a flooded mine shaft where 153 workers have been trapped for six days, state-run television reported Saturday.
The order came after rescuers at the Wangjialing coal mine heard a tapping sound coming up a pipe on Friday, bringing a glimmer of hope that some of the missing in the northern province of Shanxi had survived the flood on Sunday.
There have been no further signs of life since rescuers heard the tapping sound, state television said.
State media said divers were preparing to enter the flooded mine but did not say when they would go down the shaft.
At least 3,000 rescuers have been racing against time to pump water out of the vast coal mine and reach the missing workers.
Authorities had maintained a faint hope that some workers may have survived if they were working on platforms above danger levels, and Friday's news from the mine indicated this might have been the case.
Rescuers had inserted a pipe into the shaft as part of the rescue effort. When they took it out, an iron wire had been attached to it, apparently by one of the trapped, Xinhua quoted a rescue official as saying.
They have sent a bucket down the narrow hole with food provisions, pens, paper and communication equipment, Xinhua said.
The rescue effort comes at the end of what has been a disastrous week for China's notoriously dangerous mining sector.
Altogether, nearly 30 people have died and almost 200 are missing after five separate coal mining accidents in as many days.
Workers' safety is often ignored in China's collieries in the quest for quick profits and the drive to meet surging demand for coal -- the source of about 70 per cent of the country's energy.
In the latest incident, a fire in a coal mine in the northern province of Shaanxi killed nine people Thursday.
In the central province of Henan, a huge explosion at a coal mine that authorities said had been operating illegally killed at least 20 people on Wednesday.
Another 24 people were believed to be trapped underground in the mine. The boss had fled, prompting a huge manhunt by local police, state media said.
The blast was so powerful that several buildings near the mine shaft were flattened, with bits of clothes hanging from the trees, the official China Daily reported.
In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, a flood had trapped five people at a colliery. And on the other side of the country, in the far-western region of Xinjiang, 10 were missing after a mine collapse.
If the workers in Shanxi are not saved, that accident will be the deadliest in China's coal mines in more than two years.
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