Sixteen coal miners have been trapped following a coal mine flood in Hunan Province. The accident happened at 6 pm Wednesday at a colliery in Lei-yang’s Sandu township as 40 workers were working underground.

Help is on the way – The mine reported the accident to the municipal government early Thursday. Since then, four teams of about 40 rescuers each have been dispatched to the site.

The plan is for the teams to rotate underground every six hours to work on freeing the trapped miners. But this group of rescuers have already been working more than ten.

Rescuers say three huge boulders and collections of mud had been blocking the way, but that they have now managed to break up the rocks. Despite this, they still hadn’t gotten in touch with those trapped as of 10:30 this morning Beijing time. The flood’s cause is still unknown.

Editor:Zhang Dan |Source: CNTV.CN