Rescuers locate 14 trapped miners

Rescuers prepare to enter the flooded coal mine in Gongxian county, Yibin, Sichuan province on Sunday. Crews are pumping air to the miners and clearing silt.

Rescue workers have located 14 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in Southwest China, and efforts are underway to save them.

As of 8 am on Sunday, four people had died after the mine flooded on Saturday afternoon in Xunchang town in Gongxian county, which falls under the administration of Yibin, Sichuan province, according to Hu Xiaohua, an official in the Yibin municipal government information office.

The Sichuan Coal Industry Group's Shanmushu mine flooded at 3:26 pm Saturday, as 347 people were working in the shaft. As of Sunday morning, 329 people had returned to the surface.

Sichuan Governor Yin Li and Huang Yuzhi, vice-minister of emergency management and head of the National Coal Mine Safety Administration, went to the scene overnight to oversee search and rescue operations.

"Eleven search and rescue teams comprising around 190 people are working in a rapid and orderly manner," Hu said.

"Search-and-rescue workers are using 16 types of submersible pumps to pump water out of the area where the miners are trapped. Compressed air is being released into the area through pipelines to ensure that sufficient air is available. And the crews are taking turns clearing silt, which prevents teams from approaching the area," Hu said.

The Shanmushu mine, which opened in 2015, produces coal and coal byproducts.

According to Beijing News, it has had three major accidents since 2013. A gas explosion killed seven people in 2013. The following year, a roof collapse killed one. In April, an excessive amount of explosive gas accumulated, though it didn't explode and no one died. Twenty-two officials were punished.