BEIJING (Reuters) – Eight miners have been rescued and 21 are still trapped in a coal mine that flooded in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday, citing a local emergency department.
A section of the mine led to power outages just after 6pm (1000 GMT) on Saturday when 29 miners were working at the mine in Hutubi province in Xinjiang, the report said.
In a separate report, state media Global Times said 12 of the miners trapped were found in the mine as of Sunday and are expected to be rescued, while nine more workers have not been located.
Chinese mines are among the deadliest in the world.
Ten gold miners were declared dead in January after an explosion at a mine in Shandong province in China.
In December, 23 people were killed after being trapped in a mine in the southwestern city of Chongqing. Three months earlier, 16 people had died in a separate coal mine in the same area.
State media on Sunday said rescue efforts in the Xinjiang mine were continuing.
Reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing and Sabahatjahan Contractor in Bengaluru; Edited by Jacqueline Wong