Rescuers set up equipment, prepare to search for 153 trapped in flooded Chinese coal mine

Rescuers prepare for search in flooded China mine

XIANGNING, China — Rescue workers set up equipment and prepared Sunday to mount an operation to try to find survivors among 153 trapped miners in a northern China, saying they have not given up hope more than one week after the mine flooded.

But no decisions have been made yet on a next step after a dive team entered the mine Saturday and called the situation underground “very difficult,” with black, murky water complicating efforts to reach sites where rescuers hope miners have survived.

No further signs of life have been detected after apparent tapping was heard Friday, said Wen Changjin, an official with the news center set up in a town near the mine in the northern province of Shanxi.

Preparations late Sunday afternoon appeared to show authorities were nearly ready to send search teams into the mine. Bamboo material was unloaded which will be laid over the muddy floors of mine shafts. State television quoted officials as saying the main task was to pump out water, and that a search effort will start when conditions are right.

At a news conference authorities outlined hospital preparations for survivors if any are found. They said that by noon Sunday the water level underground had dropped significantly, but they did not know how much water was still in the mine.

About 3,000 people have been working around the clock to pump out water that poured in when miners digging tunnels broke into an abandoned shaft on March 28.

Four rescue teams of about 10 people each received a briefing from provincial Gov. Wang Jun, who went over a map with them and told them communication was important.

“We are waiting further instructions,” said one of the team leaders, Song Danian. “We will go as far and as deep as we can.”

Experts said the work to reach the miners could last days and their survival depended on decent air to breathe and clean water to drink.

Television footage on Friday afternoon showed rescuers tapping on pipes with a wrench, then cheering and jumping after hearing a response — the first sign of life since the mine flooded. They lowered pens and paper, along with packs containing glucose and milk, down metal pipes into the mine.

But nothing has been heard since then, Wen said.

The 153 workers were believed to be trapped on nine platforms in the mine, which was flooded with equal to more than 55 Olympic swimming pools, state media have said. Rescuers said four platforms were not totally submerged.

About two dozen ambulances were parked on the road leading into the mine site, and doctors and nurses in white coats stood by.

But they acknowledge the chances of finding someone alive are slipping as the time goes by.

“The chances are very slim. It is very cold in there, and they have been there for a long time,” said Dr. Qin Zongyang, who is set to go into the mine with the first search teams.

A preliminary investigation found that the mine’s managers ignored water leaks from the abandoned mine before the accident, the State Administration of Work Safety said.

China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest. Accidents killed 2,631 coal miners in China last year, down from 6,995 deaths in 2002, the most dangerous year on record, according to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.

Associated Press researcher Henry Hou in Beijing contributed to this report.