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More workers may trapped in flooded coalmine XINGNING, Guangdong, Aug. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of the miners trapped in the flooded colliery in Ningxing City of southern Guangdong Province may rise, the authorities said Monday. "After one-day investigation, we still have not found out the exact number of the trapped yet as the many management staffs, who are expect to know the information, have run away from the site after the accident occurred," said Chen Ganglin, deputy secretary of the Ningxing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Previous report said 102 miners were trapped in the mine. "But we have received more report of missing miners from their families," said Chen, who was assigned to receive the anxious families of the victims, adding Zeng fanjin, the mine owner and Luo Changxian, chief technical supervisor, were receiving investigation. Local government issued a notice Monday to call 65 runaway management workers to come back to the mine to help the investigation. More than 600 people have been organized to join in the rescueoperations. Water level at the flooded coal mine has gradually dropped while rescuers had found little clue of the trapped miners. "Their chance to survive is very slim as experts estimated 15 million to 20 million cubic meters of water had flooded into the tunnel ," said Chen. "The water storage underground almost equals to that of a medium-sized reservoir," said Chen, adding three water pumps were working around clock and four more were expected to put into work Tuesday. However, experts found it was hard to locate where the water comes from, which adds difficulties to the effort to find the cause of the accident Only four miners escaped from the flooded site about 480 metersunderground, when the flooding occurred at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the privately-run coal mine, located in Huanghuai Township of Xingning. "This is a typical case caused by malignant violation of safety rules," said Li Yizhong, director of the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision and Administration, who arrived at the site to give guidance in the rescue operation on early Monday morning. Li said the mine is illegal as it has no production licence. In addition, it continued its production despite that local government has ordered all mines in Ningxing suspended operation for safety examination after another flooding accident happened toa coal mine on July 14. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have urged the local government and departments concerned to "take substantial steps and spare no efforts" in saving the trapped miners. Governor of Guangdong Province Huang Huahua has rushed to the site upon receiving the report. He asked the rescuers to do their best to save the miners and required local government to take good care of the miner's families. According to local government, the Daxing Coal Mine was founded in 1990 with a designed annual production capacity of 30,000 tons of coal. The miners are mainly from the Ningxing and the neighboring provinces of Jiangxi, Anhui and Guizhou. More than 60 relatives of the trapped miners have arrived at the site by 8 p.m. Monday, waiting anxiously for the information about their family members. At the Central Primary School of Huanghui Township, which was arranged to receive the families of the trapped miners, Liu Jinping, a farmer from eastern Jiangxi Province told Xinhua that he came to look for his nephew Liu Xiaoming, who was said to be missing in the accident. "I just want he could came back alive," said Liu.
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