Despite fading chances that 57 coal miners trapped on Thursday night in North China's Shanxi Province could have survived the flood in the mine, rescue officials were still optimistic yesterday.

"The utmost task is to drain the flood water in the pit," said Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, who rushed to the site after the accident occurred.

Rescuers could drain as much as 1,200 cubic metres of water per hour by using all 14 pumps at the site.

Maps of coal excavation of the Xinjing Coal Mine in Zuoyun County indicated that if the miners were trapped in higher places underground, they may have survived the disaster, said rescue experts on the scene.

In a second accident, which occurred in Chongqing Municipality on Sunday, three miners were confirmed dead and nine others were saved after a natural gas explosion.

A third accident took place in Beijing last Thursday when a cave trapped five miners working underground, reported the local Fazhi Wanbao newspaper.

Rescuers have found the bodies of all five coal miners in Lianhua'an of Fangshan District, officials with the Beijing bureau of work safety said yesterday.

Investigations into the causes of all three accidents are still under way, officials said.

Source: China Daily