Divers make quick visit to check mine condition
Source: Agencies |
April 4, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE first team of rescuers and divers entered a flooded Chinese mine yesterday afternoon where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week, only to return within hours and describe the situation underground "very difficult."
There were no further signs of life after tapping was heard the previous day.
The divers said black, murky water was complicating efforts to reach the site where rescuers hope miners are still alive, China Central Television reported.
The soonest that any large-scale rescue effort can be launched is early this morning, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The team had been expected to explore conditions underground before more rescuers are sent.
The divers yesterday carried underwater cameras to film the scene.
A total of 283 rescuers are involved in the mission, while 153 ambulances, one for each trapped miner, are standing by with 156 medical staff to ensure immediate treatment if the trapped miners are rescued.
Rescuers had cheered Friday after hearing the tapping noises and what sounded like possible shouting.
Television footage showed them tapping on pipes with a wrench, then cheering and jumping after hearing a response.
They lowered pens and paper, along with glucose and milk, down metal pipes to the spot where the tapping was heard. But nothing new had been heard by yesterday afternoon, said Wen Changjin, an official at the media center set up at the mine site in the northern province of Shanxi.
It was not immediately clear what risks rescuers would be taking by entering the Wangjialing mine, where 3,000 rescuers were working to pump out water.
Wen said the water level underground had dropped by about 5 meters as of noon yesterday.
Government officials say the mine flooded last Sunday afternoon when workers digging tunnels broke into an old shaft filled with water.
But experts said it could still take days to reach the miners, and their survival depended on whether they had decent air to breathe and clean water to drink.
"They're doing probably the only thing they can do, which is to pump water as fast as they possibly can," David Feickert, a coal mine safety adviser to the Chinese government, told The Associated Press. He said some mines have rescuers trained as divers for cases like this.
"But from the sound of it, there's too much water in this mine and they're not sure where people are."
Wen said rescuers tapping on the pipes began to hear responses from about 250 meters below ground at about 2pm Friday.
Rescuer Zhao Chuan told The Associated Press that another rescue team had reported hearing people shouting underground.
Wen said officials at the news center had not heard reports of shouting.
Zhao was quoted by CCTV as saying that an iron wire was found tied to a drill rod and rescuers think it may have been attached by one of the trapped miners.
Images of the iron wire showed it had been shaped into a circle, with its ends twisted together. The flood was one of three coal mine accidents in China within a week.
A gas explosion on Wednesday in the central province of Henan killed 19 and left 24 trapped, and nine people died on Thursday in northwestern Shaanxi Province.
There were no further signs of life after tapping was heard the previous day.
The divers said black, murky water was complicating efforts to reach the site where rescuers hope miners are still alive, China Central Television reported.
The soonest that any large-scale rescue effort can be launched is early this morning, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The team had been expected to explore conditions underground before more rescuers are sent.
The divers yesterday carried underwater cameras to film the scene.
A total of 283 rescuers are involved in the mission, while 153 ambulances, one for each trapped miner, are standing by with 156 medical staff to ensure immediate treatment if the trapped miners are rescued.
Rescuers had cheered Friday after hearing the tapping noises and what sounded like possible shouting.
Television footage showed them tapping on pipes with a wrench, then cheering and jumping after hearing a response.
They lowered pens and paper, along with glucose and milk, down metal pipes to the spot where the tapping was heard. But nothing new had been heard by yesterday afternoon, said Wen Changjin, an official at the media center set up at the mine site in the northern province of Shanxi.
It was not immediately clear what risks rescuers would be taking by entering the Wangjialing mine, where 3,000 rescuers were working to pump out water.
Wen said the water level underground had dropped by about 5 meters as of noon yesterday.
Government officials say the mine flooded last Sunday afternoon when workers digging tunnels broke into an old shaft filled with water.
But experts said it could still take days to reach the miners, and their survival depended on whether they had decent air to breathe and clean water to drink.
"They're doing probably the only thing they can do, which is to pump water as fast as they possibly can," David Feickert, a coal mine safety adviser to the Chinese government, told The Associated Press. He said some mines have rescuers trained as divers for cases like this.
"But from the sound of it, there's too much water in this mine and they're not sure where people are."
Wen said rescuers tapping on the pipes began to hear responses from about 250 meters below ground at about 2pm Friday.
Rescuer Zhao Chuan told The Associated Press that another rescue team had reported hearing people shouting underground.
Wen said officials at the news center had not heard reports of shouting.
Zhao was quoted by CCTV as saying that an iron wire was found tied to a drill rod and rescuers think it may have been attached by one of the trapped miners.
Images of the iron wire showed it had been shaped into a circle, with its ends twisted together. The flood was one of three coal mine accidents in China within a week.
A gas explosion on Wednesday in the central province of Henan killed 19 and left 24 trapped, and nine people died on Thursday in northwestern Shaanxi Province.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
