Rescuers have recovered eight bodies after a coal shaft flooded on April 16 in central China's Hunan Province, sources with the local rescue headquarters said.

The flood occurred around 3:40 PM at the Changcheng Mine, in Huangfengqiao Town, Zhuzhou City, when 31 miners were working underground. Twelve of them were trapped.

Three survivors were rescued on Saturday more than four days after the flood. Rescuers are still searching for last trapped miner who is believed to be still alive.

It would take another three days to remove the silts, but there was plenty of oxygen and water in the shaft, and the trapped man could still be alive, said Yan Yinchu, deputy director of the provincial coal mine safety supervision authority, who was at the scene directing rescue work.

Liu Guihua, one of the survivors, said he has been working as a miner for ten years, and he knew how to escape. "There were three of us trapped in the same area, and we did not know we had been trapped for about five days. We talked and supported each other through the ordeal," he said.

The privately-owned Changcheng Mine, with a production capacity of 30,000 tons a year, was operating with a valid license and certificates.

In an another accident in the province, eight miners were trapped and feared dead after a coal mine blasted in Yongxing County on Saturday. The mine owner had disappeared and failed to report the gas explosion.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2007)