Rescuers are racing to save 35 miners trapped in a flooded iron ore mine in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The flood occurred shortly after midnight yesterday at the Haolaigou Iron Ore Mine in Donghe District, near the city of Baotou.
Only 11 miners escaped, according to officials at the rescue headquarters at the accident site.
Xinhua News Agency quoted Dong Hanzhong, publicity chief of the city's Party committee, as saying water had flooded three of the mine's vertical shafts, trapping the miners beneath.
City authorities triggered an emergency response system designed to handle sudden major accidents immediately after the flood and set up a rescue headquarters at the accident site.
Local officials, including the secretary of Baotou's Party committee, Mo Jiancheng, and acting Mayor Hu'ercha, rushed to the site to oversee the rescue operations shortly after the accident.
Rescuers are running two pumps to remove the water from the shafts, and the rescue headquarters has sought help from the coal and electricity giant Shenhua Group.
The company is transporting four slurry pumps from Wuhai, a city to the southwest of Baotou, to the accident site.
Local police have taken Cao Shihu, the legal representative of the Baotou-based Chaoyue Mining Company, which owns the mine, into custody.
Local safety authorities confirmed that the company is a private one, founded in 2001, and has all of its licenses in order.
The company has an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of fine iron ore.
A spokesman at the rescue headquarters said officials had been sent down the mine to examine the scene yesterday morning and collected information to help the rescue effort.
