XIN'AN, Henan, Dec. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The 42 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in central China's Henan Province remained missing for over 40 hours till Sunday evening as rescuers were pumping water out of the mine.

 
Rescue work are underway. (Xinhua)

    Over 8,000 cubic meters water were drained out to lower the water level in the mine by about three meters, said Zhao Weimin, director of the Coal Industry Bureau of Xin'an County, where the mine is located. 

    He said that rescuers were unable to find the leakage point, which caused the flooding under the mine, due to complicated geographic condition inside.

    However, he said there would be still a piece of hope for the survival of the trapped miners if they found the right direction to escape, since there were some lanes in the mine that were above the water level.

    The tragedy took place in Sigou Coal Mine at about 11:40 p.m. Friday when 76 miners were working underground. Only 34 miners escaped the flooding inside the privately-run coal mine, sources from the on-the-spot rescue headquarters said.

    One of the survivor named Di Dongqiang told Xinhua that the mine had experienced a minor flooding before, but the foreman did not allow the miners to go out saying the leakage was serious enough to suspend mining.

    A spokesman for the Xin'an County government said the coal mine's managerial staffs, including the mine owner Jin Changsong, went into hiding shortly after the accident.

    The local public security bureau has issued a want circular to arrest the coal mine manager at large.

    Sigou Coal Mine is capable of producing 60,000 tons of coal annually. But it has not obtained a license for work safety. The cause of the coal mine flooding is unknown and further investigation is underway. Enditem