Rescuers pump out water in fading bid to save 26 miners still trapped in China mine

Rescuers in fading bid to save 26 from China mine

BEIJING — Rescuers pumped water Thursday in a fading bid to find more survivors in a flooded mine in northern China where 115 workers were dramatically rescued this week after being trapped for eight days.

The death toll rose to 12 early Thursday, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Some 26 miners are believed trapped in two areas and there have been no further signs of life.

“Now we’re racing against time and putting efforts in full swing to concentrate on these two areas,” Liu Dezheng, the rescue headquarters’ spokesman, told a news conference Wednesday.

With 5,000 rescuers at the mine site, pumping water out was the top priority, Liu said. “It’s only after we’ve pumped water out and cleared a way through that we can go in. If we can’t go in, we can’t rescue them.”

Liu said there was also the threat of dangerous gases seeping into the spaces underground that could sicken rescuers or cause an explosion.

The lowered hopes come after Monday’s dramatic rescues at the Wangjialing mine in Shanxi province. The 115 miners survived for eight days underground by eating sawdust, tree bark, paper and even coal. Some strapped themselves to the walls of the shafts with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept.

A total of 153 miners had been trapped since March 28, when workers digging tunnels broke into a water-filled abandoned shaft. A preliminary investigation last week found the mine’s managers ignored water leaks.

The survivors have been hospitalized in the nearby city of Hejin under tight security, with even relatives being kept away from some of them.

Yuan Zhusheng, a 42-year-old house builder from Hunan province, was forced to stand across the street from the Hejin City Hospital yelling his brother’s name. Moments later his brother, in white and blue hospital clothes, appeared on a balcony.

Yuan and his four friends cheered.

“I’m very excited to see him, because it is the first time since the flooding. … I was so worried,” Yuan said.

He said he has had no chance to speak with his 48-year-old brother because doctors told him his brother needed to rest.

Monday’s rescues were rare good news for China’s mining industry, the deadliest in the world, where accidents killed 2,631 coal miners last year. That’s down from 6,995 deaths in 2002, the worst year on record.