Twenty-two miners are reportedly still trapped after a flood at a coal mine at Dongshan in Yunnan Province on Monday 7 April 2014. Twenty-six miners were in the mine at the time of the incident, four having subsequently been rescued. The precise nature of the incident is unclear, but local authorities are suggesting that it happened abruptly at 4.50 am local time, which would suggest that it was the result of a sudden inrush of water. Such incidents are typically caused by excavators unexpectedly hitting a pocket of water in a rock seem, or occasionally a flooded, disused mineshaft.
Rescue workers preparing to enter the flooded Dongshan coal mine on Monday 7 April 2014.
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