67 Chinese miners trapped below ground

Rescuers today continued trying to reach 67 Chinese miners trapped below ground by a collapse at one mine and a flood at another, officials said.

‘‘Although the hopes of finding miners alive are dim, we believe some miners could have survived,’’ said an official at a gypsum mine in southern China where a cave-in has trapped 29 miners since Friday morning.

‘‘We are trying our best,’’ said the official, who only gave his surname, Duan. No bodies or survivors have been found yet, he said.

State media reports had previously said the trapped miners probably had about two days of air. Underground temperatures rose as high as 40C in the mine in Beihai, a city in the southern Guangxi region, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Another 38 miners were trapped in a coal mine shaft that flooded. Rescue efforts were continuing at the mine near Chengdu, a city in the southwestern province of Sichuan, said a local official who gave his name as Mr Zhang.

Sichuan government leaders were directing the operation, said the official. He said he had no other details.

More than 4,800 miners died last year in Chinese coal mines, many of them rudimentary outfits operating without permission and safety equipment, such as ventilators to disperse deadly gas.