Two workers were confirmed dead ina coal mine flooding that trapped eight miners in the northeastern China province of Heilongjiang early Sunday, local sources said Monday.

The accident occurred at around 5:00 am Sunday at a coal mine in Shuangyashan City, said officials with the provincial coal minesafety supervisory bureau and the Shuangyashan Mining Group, to which the mine belongs.

All the eight miners then working underground had been trapped and only one of them had survived by press time, they said.

Rescuers were still searching for the remaining five miners, and the officials said they saw hope for at least some of them to survive.

The miners had accidentally dug into a mined-out area and caused water to flood into the mine, said the officials.

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2004)