A general view of two shafts where 35 miners are trapped in a flooded iron ore mine near Baotou, northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, January 17, 2007.
[Newsphoto]

Thirty-five miners have been confirmed trapped in a flooded iron ore mine in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to the local rescue headquarters.

The flood occurred shortly after zero hour on Wednesday morning at Haolaigou Iron Ore Mine in Donghe District, near the city of Baotou, when miners were changing shifts. Only 11 miners escaped, according to rescue headquarters.

Dong Hanzhong, chief of publicity with the Baotou City CPC Committee, said water had flooded three of the mine's vertical shafts, trapping the miners below.

None of the trapped miners are from the local area - 18 are from southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Rescuers were attempting to reach one of the flooded shafts through a tunnel used to discharge ore residue, said Dong.

"We expect to connect with the flooded shaft by noon on Thursday," said Dong, adding four water pumps are in operation.

Rescue headquarters has sought extra equipment from coal and electricity firm Shenhua Group Corp. Ltd. Four Shenhua slurry pumps are being transported from Wuhai, a city west of Baotou, to the site.

Yang Jing, chairman of the autonomous region, instructed rescuers to do everything possible to rescue the trapped miners.

The rescuers face the problem of the tunnel being only 2.3 meters wide, 2.5 meters high and a full two kilometers in length. The estimated total volume of water is 12,000 cubic meters.

Qu Laiyun, head of the rescue team and vice director of the coal mine safety supervision bureau, noted that the water could have originated from an underground river.

After the accident, all mines in Baotou have been ordered to suspend operations till "they are proved legal and safe after a thorough safety examination".

Police are keeping Cao Shihu, legal representative of Chaoyue Mining Co. Ltd of Baotou City, which owns Haolaigou Iron Ore Mine, under surveillance.

Meanwhile, they are trying to contact relatives of the trapped miners.

Chaoyue Mining is a private company set up in 2001. Its mines have a production capacity of 100,000 tons of iron ore concentrate a year.

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