Rescuers are trying to find more than 150 workers trapped in a flooded coal mine being built in northern China today.
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have ordered authorities to do everything possible to save the workers at the vast Wangjialing mine in Shanxi province, China's coal-producing heartland, where the accident took place yesterday.
The flood is the latest in a series of accidents plaguing the world's top coal-producing nation, where mines are among the most dangerous globally. More than 2,600 people were killed in the country's collieries last year.
If the trapped workers are not rescued, the accident in Xiangning county will be the deadliest in China in more than four years. In November 2005, 171 workers died after an explosion in a mine in the country's northeast.
Investigations so far have shown that 261 workers were in the Wangjialing pit as water started to gush in. 108 workers were brought to safety, but 153 were trapped underground, the nation's work safety administration said.
A preliminary probe showed that water that had accumulated in nearby abandoned pits leaked into the new mine where the workers were located, the administration said.
The mine belongs to the state-owned Huajin Coking Coal company and covers an area of 180sq.kms.
There are currently 130,000 to 140,000 cubic metres of water in the pit, or the equivalent of at least 52 Olympic-sized swimming pools, state television reported.
It will take more than a day to start lowering water levels and three days to completely drain the pit, although rescuers will be able to reach the workers before then.
However, the water has now stopped rising underground, boosting the workers' chances of survival. Rescuers are using more than 10 pumps round-the-clock to drain the water.
