Three miners escaped a flooded coal mine in north China's Shanxi Province early on Monday while 10 others remained trapped, said local rescuers.

The three miners, whose identities were not immediately known, appeared at the entrance of the Wangzhuang Coal Mining Co., Ltd. in Changzhi City around 7 a.m. and were taken to hospital for health checkups.

A hospital source said all three were in good health.

The flood happened at 11:40 p.m. on Saturday. At the time, there were 82 miners underground. By early Sunday 69 had managed to escape.

The floodwater, amounting to 10,000 cubic meters, was said to come from a mined-out area in the vicinity.

The rescue headquarters said more than 200 people took part in the operation using eight pumps. They were making good progress in bringing down the floodwater level and were still looking for the missing 10 miners.

The mine, under the Shanxi Coal Transportation and Sales Group Co., Ltd., is state-owned and fully registered with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tonnes.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2008)