All the miners trapped in a flooded graphite mine in Guiyang County, central China's Hunan Province, were rescued as of Saturday afternoon, the local government source said.

With the last trapped miner Ouyang Shaofang rescued at 4:30 PM, all the nine miners were found alive after a 74-hour rescue operation.

The flooding accident took place at about 2 PM on Wednesday at the Wangda Graphite Mine in Heye Township, rescuers said.

Nine miners were working underground for an overhaul task and five of them have been pulled out alive and sent to a local hospital for medical observation on Thursday.

Nearly 100 people are working to pump water, provide ventilation for the trapped miners underground and monitor the surrounding air quality, rescuers said, providing no further details about the flooding.

The hospital source said all the miners are in a safe condition now.

(Xinhua News Agecny October 8, 2006)