11 Trapped in flooded colliery in SW China

Eleven miners were trapped in a flooded coal mine in China's southwestern Guizhou province, authorities said Thursday. Sources with the provincial work safety watchdog said that a total of 18 people were working underground when the flooding occurred Thursday morning in the Xinsheng coal mine in Yanhe county, according to China's (Xinhua) News Agency. Seven miners managed to escape on their own, and rescuers have been sent to the mine for the search of the trapped miners, the sources said. The mine in the township of Qiaojia has a designed annual capacity of 90,000 tonnes. An investigation into the cause of the flooding is underway.