A total of 42 miners were working at the Anli coal mine in Anyang on Saturday when a sudden torrent of water flooded a shaft. Twenty-seven miners managed to scramble to safety, said an official with the city's Bureau of Work Safety.

Hopes of rescuing those still trapped remain high, said Zou Shaolong, head of the bureau, who is at the site.

By yesterday afternoon, water in the main tunnel had been drained and rescue workers have been able to send oxygen into the shaft while debris from the cave-in, following the flooding, is cleared.

There has been no let up for work safety officials in recent days with four consecutive serious colliery accidents claiming the lives of 64 miners last week, according to the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).

Work safety departments at all levels are and will continue to carry out further supervision and spot checks on coal mines around the country.

Last Wednesday, a fatal gas explosion claimed the lives of 24 miners and injured three in Huaping County of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, SAWS said.

Investigators attributed that accident to the management's negligence of safety, a Xinhua report said.

Zhou Guisheng, a director with the provincial Bureau of Coal Mine Safety, said that those in charge at the colliery had failed to properly respond when flaws in safety measures were identified.

The ventilation shafts of the mine had not been installed in the correct places and were not able to dispel the gas in the mine at all, Zhou said, so when it accumulated to a certain density, an explosion was inevitable.

Officials from the safety bureau had warned those in charge at the mine to improve its ventilation, but nothing was done.

The investigating team also found that the management staff and workers in charge of safety measures were irresponsible in their work, Xinhua said.

(China Daily May 27, 2003)