(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-19 21:26

XINTAI -- Rescuers are pumping water from flooded coal mines in east China's Shandong Province, trying to save the trapped miners, said local sources on Sunday.

More than 6,700 rescuers managed to finish installation of eleven water pumps rushed there from Henan, Hebei and Shanxi by dusk, but the task is not easy as water in the shaft belonging to the Huayuan Mining has totalled more than 12 million cubic meters and in the nearby Minggong coal mine, 145,000 cubic meters.

The Huayuan Mining Co. mine was flooded at around 2:30 p.m. Friday when the Wen River burst a dike, and water poured into a shaft, trapping 172 miners.

Another flooding trapped nine people in the nearby Minggong coal mine at around 8:00 p.m. Friday because of rainstorm.

The breach in the dike has been blocked.

Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, ordered reinforcement of the dam and close monitoring of gas accumulation underground.