Rescuers find 39 workers alive, 30 still missing in China mine disaster

BEIJING, Monday (AFP) - Rescuers found 39 miners alive in a flooded coal pit in northeast China as efforts were stepped up to plug a burst wall and locate 30 workers still missing.

The Tengda coalmine in Jiaohe city, Jilin province was flooded Sunday when water from the neighbouring Jian mine gushed into the shaft, trapping 69 men working deep underground.

By early Monday, 39 miners had been pulled from the pit alive.

"By 10 am this morning, 39 miners have been found alive and they are in hospital for examination," the director of the control office of the Jilin work safety bureau, surnamed Chen, told AFP.

"They are in good health. This is a very fortunate event in a very infortunate incident."

He had no details on how they survived and said the search for 30 workers still missing was continuing.

Earlier, local officials said hopes of finding anyone alive were slim because the force of the water was so strong.

"If there is any pockets of air or they have oxygen with them then there is still a possibility they are alive, but it is hard to say," said an official who declined to be named from the Jilin work safety bureau.