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Eight trapped miners saved from flooded N China pit

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-02 09:18

XIANGNING, Shanxi - Eight miners who had been trapped in a flooded colliery of north China's Shanxi Province were saved early Friday after being trapped for 35 hours, rescuers said.

The first four survivors were rescued and sent to hospital at around 2:30 am, a spokesman with the emergency rescue headquarters said.

Rescuers helped the other four miners out of the pit at around 4:10 am, he said.

Related readings:  Coal mine flood traps 9, eight confirmed alive

The eight survivors were known to be alive and had been in close contact with the rescuers via phone after the Shengping Coal Mine in Jixian County where they worked was flooded with torrential rain water Wednesday.

Of the 23 miners in the pit, 14 managed to escape.

Rescuers were still trying to find out the whereabouts of the last missing miner, who lost contact with the others after the flood.

The Shengping Coal Mine, owned by the Shanxi Coal Transportation and Sales Group Co., Ltd., has an annual output of 900,000 tonnes.