TAIYUAN, May 20 (Xinhua) -- At least five miners are trapped in a coal mine after it was flooded in Zuoyun County, north China's Shanxi Province, local sources said Saturday.

    But more miners are feared to be in danger due to an attempted cover-up of the accident by the head of the coal mine, who has gone into hiding.

    Gong Anku, head of the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Work Safety, said that as the head of the mine had disappeared, he suspects there might be more miners trapped beneath the coal mine shaft.

    Miners who survived the flooding also said more than five miners were working inside the coal mine when the accident happened.

    Managerial staff of the coal mine even rented taxis to transfer family members of the trapped miners to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shanxi's close neighbor, to prevent them from rioting and speaking to the press.

    The flooding took place at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Xinjing Coal Mine, a legal township coal producing entity in Zuoyun County, northern Shanxi.

    Up to now, nine other managerial personnel of the coal mine, with an annual production capacity of 90,000 tons, have been detained by the local police.

    Two Xinhua correspondents have rushed to Datong, the administrative base for Zuoyun County, to investigate the incident.

    The rescue operation is still going on and the cause of the flooding is being investigated. Enditem