Rescuers pumping water from Chinese mine

updated 11:03 p.m. ET May 22, 2006

ZUOYUN, China - Crews searching for 57 coal miners trapped for five days by an underground flood began pumping water from their mine Tuesday, as residents began to lose hope for a successful rescue.

The pumping began after a lengthy delay that state media said was caused by technical problems and lack of power to run the giant pumps brought in by rescuers.

There were no ambulances or medical personnel on hand, suggesting that rescuers didn’t expect to find any survivors from the flood Thursday, which appeared to be China’s biggest mine disaster this year.

6,000 miners die every year
The disaster in the country’s dusty northern hill country highlighted the chaotic state of its coal mines, where some 6,000 miners are killed each year in fires, explosions and floods.

After the water pumps were turned on at about 9 a.m. Tuesday, onlookers could see a growing stream pouring from hoses leading out of the mine and into a gully below.

The pumps are capable of moving 42,000 cubic feet of water per hour, the official Xinhua News Agency said. But it said that the flooded mine could take days to drain.

“We must go all out to rescue these men. But we also need to start preparing for the worst,” Feng Lixiang, mayor of the nearby city of Datong, which administers the area, was quoted as saying in local newspapers. Shen Wenhui, a wife of one missing miner, said she was “in despair” with no news of her husband.

Questions on management
The undercurrent of pessimism added to an emerging picture that the Xinjing mine was poorly managed and indifferent to safety. China’s top work safety official, Li Yizhong, on Monday accused its managers of sending miners into a coal seam beyond its approved area and other officials alleged the managers tried to cover up the accident.

Mine manager Li Fuyuan and at least eight other officials have been detained for questioning, although the mine’s owner fled, state media reported. A spokesman for the national work safety office, Huang Yi, said investigators were looking to see whether local officials have financial ties to the mine.

“There’s no such thing as accidents. They’re all caused by human factors,” said Fang Zhipeng, a 47-year-old worker at a neighboring mine and one of scores of onlookers watching the rescue workers at Xinjing, which lies in bone-dry countryside about one-hour’s drive from the mining center of Datong.

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