Rescuers close to trapped miners in SW China

GUIYANG - Rescuers are getting closer to four miners, who have been trapped since Saturday after a coal-mine gas outburst in Qinglong County of Southwest China's Guizhou province.

The county's information office confirmed with Xinhua on Sunday that rescuers were about 12 meters away from the miners at 6 pm. The miners are about 30 meters underground.

"They are expected to reach where the miners are supposed to be at midnight," said an official with the office who declined to give his name.

"We have no idea if they [the miners] are still alive because toxic gas underground is very intense," said the official.

The accident took place at 11:29 a.m. on Saturday in the Zhongtian Coal Mine, when 24 miners were working underground. Twenty miners were rescued, but four others were trapped.