Rescuers pull workers from flooded coal mine
Updated
A coal miner is carried from a flooded Chinese mine after being trapped for a week.
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Rescue workers have saved 19 miners from a flooded Chinese mine where they had been trapped for a week, state media said, in a rare good news story for an industry in which thousands die each year.
The state CCTV television network showed the men being carried out on stretchers from the flooded mine swaddled in blankets, their eyes bandaged as they emerged into the daylight, several shouting their thanks to the rescuers.
Three people remained trapped in the mine in north-eastern China, which was flooded on August 23 when workers mistakenly drilled into a neighbouring mine that had been filled with water, the state Xinhua news agency said.
China's coal mines, which have a dismal safety record, have been hit by a series of accidents in recent years as demand for energy has spiked.
News of Tuesday's rescue came as it emerged that six miners died when a mine in south-west China's Sichuan province flooded on Monday, also trapping another six.
Last year, 2,433 people died in coal mine accidents in China, according to official statistics - a rate of more than six workers per day.
Labour rights groups, however, say the actual death toll is likely much higher, partly due to under-reporting of accidents as mine bosses seek to limit their economic losses and avoid punishment.
China's government has repeatedly pledged to make the mining industry safer, but large-scale rescue successes remain relatively rare.
Of the 45 miners who were in the pit in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang when it flooded, 19 escaped, four were rescued on Saturday - one of whom later died - and another 19 were pulled out early Tuesday morning.
Xinhua said loud cheers went up when the first of the men emerged from the mine.
"Rescuers are still going all-out to search for the three remaining miners," Xu Guangguo, head of the provincial rescue headquarters, told the agency.
It was not immediately clear whether the remaining three were still alive.
AFP
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abc.net.au/news/2011-08-30/china-pulls-19-from-flooded-mine-in-rare-rescue/2863032/?site=sydney
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