Hopes for 11 trapped miners still remain

YANHE, Guizhou - A rescue official said Friday morning that there are spaces for life under the mine pit where 11 miners remain trapped by a colliery flooding in Thursday morning in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

Zhang Yihao, head of the rescue operation, said the flood level has stopped rising in the Xinsheng Coal Mine, and there are two life spaces in the mine lane that are above the water level to allow the miners to take refuge.

He also corrected the total number of miners working under the mine to 23, instead the previously reported 22. And 12 of them have managed to escape the accident which happened at 10:30 am Thursday.

Zhang said the flooding may have been triggered by mining blast in a neighboring coal mine, which damaged the structure of the Xinsheng Coal Mine and produced heavy dust there.

More than 300 rescuers are braving the heavy dust to install facilities to pump water out of the mine and approach the missing workers.

The mine in Qiaojia township, which is 37 kilometers from Yanhe's county seat, has a designed annual capacity of 90,000 tonnes.