South west China mine flood triggered by blasting

Blasting is believed to have caused the flooding that has trapped twenty-two coal miners underground in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Contact had still not been made with the trapped miners as of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, 39 hours after the accident at the Xiahaizi mine in Qilin District of Qujing City, said Fan Huaping, mayor of Qujing. Blasting in a deserted part of the mine already cleared of minerals caused standing water to flood into other parts of the mine, said Fan. The flood hit the mine at about 4:50 a.m. on Monday, when 26 miners were underground. Four were rescued on Monday morning but 22 remain missing. As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, there were nine rescue teams at the site with more than 500 people helping the rescue effort. Pumps are running non-stop and the water level underground is dropping continuously. Li Wanjiang, deputy head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, arrived at the mine on Monday night to supervise the operation. Professional rescue teams and pumps from neighboring provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou are on site, said Luo Shixiong, spokesman for the rescue headquarters. "Both professional rescue teams have arrived and are racing to install more pumps," said Luo. Pumps brought by the Sichuan team are expected to double the pumping capacity, he added. So far, more than a third of the water has been extracted from the mine. The rescue efforts face two major difficulties, the spokesman said. One is that the mine is too narrow for a large rescue team, and the other is limited electrical capacity, restricting the number of pumps that can be operated simultaneously