32 Reportedly Trapped In China Coal Mine

Mine Was Reportedly A Legal Operation, 3rd Mine Accident In Region In As Many Weeks

(AP)  A flood at a coal mine in Henan trapped more than 30 workers on Monday - the third mine accident in as many weeks to hit the resource-rich central Chinese province, the government said.

The State Administration of Work Safety said in a notice posted on its Web site that the flood occurred shortly after dawn Monday at a mine in Pingdingshan, a city in Henan province.

The administration says 33 miners were trapped by the flood in the Gaomendong Coal Mine, after nine of the 42 workers working at the time managed to escape. It gave no other details.

A spokesman from the county's branch of the Communist Party said a rescue team has been deployed but that no updates were immediately available.

"I am only aware that a few of those trapped people have been pulled out, but I don't know whether they were alive or dead," said the man who, like many Chinese bureaucrats, would give only his surname, Li.

The official Xinhua News Agency said an investigation into the cause of the flood was under way, but that the Gaomendong mine was a legal colliery that produces 60,000 tons of coal a year.

The accident was the third one in Henan in less than three weeks, Xinhua said. In the other two accidents, five miners were confirmed dead while at least 19 others remained missing.

China's mines are the world's most dangerous with more than 3,700 deaths a year in explosions, fires and floods. Many accidents are blamed on small mines with low safety standards, or those operating illegally.