Heavy rains hindered efforts to rescue 23 miners who became trapped early Thursday in flooding at a mine in northeastern China, a local authority said.
After a week of torrential storms, the Xinyongfeng Coal Mine in Heilongjiang province flooded around 2 a.m. (1800 GMT, 2 p.m. EDT), stranding 24 miners underground, according to Zhao Xinzhi, spokesman for the Jixi city Coal Mine Supervision Bureau.
Of the original 24 trapped miners, one escaped from the mine shaft, Zhao said.
He declined to give any details of rescue efforts and the conditions in which the miners were trapped.
Just over a week ago, three miners in southern China were rescued after spending 25 days in a flooded mine. They survived by drinking dirty water and chewing coal before rescuers burrowed through a collapsed tunnel to reach them.
China is home to the world's deadliest mines, where an average of 13 workers are killed every day.
