Scuffles mark fading hope for Chinese miners

Flood waters engulfed the mine in the city of Xintai in Shandong Province on Friday in the latest tragedy to strike China’s mining industry, which has one of the poorest safety records in the world.

A crowd of 200 people, angry at the lack of information, toppled an iron fence at the south gate of the mine early in the day as rumors swirled that rescue efforts had been called off.

Frustration boiled over and relatives repeatedly broke into the compound of the Zhangzhuang mine, where they clashed sporadically with security personnel.

“I heard they stopped pumping out water from the mine. It is the same as saying they have given up,” Zhou Feng, 25, whose father is trapped, told AFP.

By nightfall, however, crowds had thinned and officials insisted that the rescue operation was still ongoing.

The head of China’s ministry-level General Administration of Work Safety, Li Yizhong, said that rescue teams had to proceed with caution because of the dangers of further flooding and gas leaks in the pit.

“But the pumping operation is already underway,” he told Xinhua news agency at the disaster site.

CCTV state television reported that high speed drills had been brought to the site to cut through the rock to accelerate the pumping operation, while Xinhua said 11 pumps had been installed by more than 6,700 rescue workers.

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But even the state news agency admitted “the task is not easy” due to the volume of water in the flooded shaft.

There was still no word about the condition of the missing workers and whether they were believed to be alive, more than two days after the flood.

A senior official from the Shandong provincial government admitted that many of the missing had yet to be located.

“We are doing the best we can,” Zhang Dekuan, the province’s secretary general, told reporters.

“At the moment we are trying to locate where the majority of the missing miners are and we will concentrate our efforts in that direction.”

China’s coal mines are some of the most dangerous in the world and fatal accidents happen almost every day.

More than 4,700 workers died last year, according to official figures, but independent labor groups put the real toll at up to 20,000 annually, saying many accidents are covered up.

Heartbreaking scenes played out as relatives desperate for news asked to be let inside the mine compound, only to be turned down by stone-faced officials.

“Save my little brother. Get him out,” screamed 54-year-old Li Xuehua, as she was propped up by two relatives.

Nineteen-year-old Zhou Jun travelled more than 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the coastal city of Qingdao to be close to his trapped father, but the teen collapsed and was rushed to hospital when he received no news.

At the west gate, another crowd of relatives had scuffled with uniformed police earlier in the day and some threw rocks at the main administration building. No injuries were reported.

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