Owner delays help for 13 trapped coal miners

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-6-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THIRTEEN miners remain missing after a coal mine flood last week in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, local authorities said yesterday.

The flood happened about 2am last Friday at the privately run Hengda Coal Mine in Jidong County, Jixi City. The owner initially said that nobody was trapped, said a spokesman of the Jixi Work Safety Bureau.

Work safety authorities were later tipped off that some miners had been trapped underground, but because the information was delayed, the rescue effort was also delayed until 4pm that day, the spokesman said.

The mine owner has been detained by police, he said.

Rescuers are speeding up efforts to pump water out of the mine, hoping to find survivors, the spokesman said.

The mine has an annual capacity of 30,000 tons, he said.

He suggested that technical problems had led to the accident, saying that workers had been ordered to dig coal even though a technological improvement plan had not been approved by local work safety authorities.