Seven men have been confirmed dead after being trapped underground for more than 40 hours in a coal mine flood in north China's Shanxi Province, the local government said on Thursday. The accident happened at about 4 a.m. on Tuesday in Yangquan, where 12 people illegally dug a mine pit in a residential building. Six of the 12 managed to escape the flood, Xinhua reported. A preliminary investigation showed another six people were excavating coal in a connected pit nearby when the flood occurred. One man from this group was trapped underground. Rescuers had pumped more than 12,000 cubic meters of water out of the pits by the time they wrapped up their work.
