Ten miners were missing last night after a coal mine in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality flooded.

A shaft at the Houshan Colliery flooded suddenly following a regular excavation blast, shortly after 2 pm, said a local government spokesman.

By last night rescue efforts were underway at the mine in Nanping Township of Nanchuan.

Some 18 workers were underground when the mine flooded, eight of whom managed to escape.

The disaster is the second severe flooding accident to hit China's coal mining sector within a month.

On May 18, 56 miners were trapped in a flood in a colliery in Zuoyun County, in North China's Shanxi Province.

Following the tragedy Li Yizhong, director of top watchdog the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), on Monday called for more unsafe mines to be closed.

Local governments must come down heavily on illegal mine owners who disregard laws, supervisors and miners' lives, Li said at a televised conference.

"All the collieries whose annual production is below 30,000 tons should be closed for good," he said.

He also called for corrupt officials involved with illegal mines to be punished severely.

Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, told the conference that closing unsafe mines and tightening safety supervision in major collieries was a top priority.

Zhao said unlicensed coal mining was still a problem and gas and flooding accidents often occurred at the unregistered mines.

Statistics from SAWS indicate that China had nearly one serious coal mine accident a day during May.

"The situation deserves high vigilance," said Li, adding that if no firm measures were taken it would be difficult to prevent severe cases in the future as the number of accidents is still on the rise.

In Beijing, for example, police in Fangshan District yesterday arrested 11 suspects who are responsible for a colliery accident that caused the death of three miners on June 2.

The suspects were accused of re-opening a Fangshan coal mine that had been ordered to shut down over safety concerns, reported the China News Service.

Source: China Daily