August 19, 2007	Sunday	Sha’aban 5, 1428

XINTAI (China), Aug 18: Hopes were fading late on Saturday for over 180 miners trapped underground by flash flooding in eastern China, after officials warned the men had little chance of survival.

Torrential rains triggered flooding which breached a river levee and sent water cascading into the mine in Shandong province via an old shaft on Friday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Rescuers battled all day on Saturday to reach the men in the Zhangzhuang mine in Xintai city, but officials did not report any breakthroughs.

By late evening, there was little sign of activity at the site, with only five police cars spotted at the main entrance, an AFP reporter witnessed.

Wang Ziqi, director of the Shandong coal mine safety administration board, admitted earlier that there were little hope for the trapped men.

“There are very slim chances for them to survive because it has been flooded and it is very difficult to pump out the water,” a relative of a miner at the colliery, surnamed Liu, said in Beijing.—AFP