42 trapped in Chinese mine flood

A flood at a coal mine in central China trapped 42 miners, the government said today.

Forty-eight workers were underground at the Sigou Coal Mine in central China’s Henan province when it flooded yesterday afternoon, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Six miners managed to escape.

Rescuers were trying to rescue the others, but there was no indication if they had survived the flood or not.

Xinhua did not say what triggered the flood.

The accident follows an explosion at another mine in northern China last Sunday that killed at least 169 miners.