| GEO World | | Flood traps 153 coal miners in northern China | Updated at: 0834 PST, Monday, March 29, 2010
TAIYUAN: Rescuers raced to pump water out of a north China coal mine Monday in efforts to save 153 workers trapped when a flood of underground water rushed through the tunnels, the country's work safety agency said.
The accident in the Wangjialing coal mine on Sunday would be one of the worst in recent years if rescue efforts fail and would setback marked safety improvements in China's deadly mines.
Some 261 workers were inside the mine when it flooded, and 108escaped or were rescued, China's State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on its Web site early Monday. Pipes and pumping equipment had been delivered to the site and water was being pumped out of the mine, Liu Dezheng, a chief engineer with the work safety bureau in Shanxi province, where Wangjialing is located, said during a televised news conference Monday.
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