180 trapped in China mine after floods

A mine disaster has hit China with floods trapping 180 in the east of the country. Two mines have been affected. Both are near the town of Xintai in Shandong province. The first incident occurred when a dike on the Wen River broke Friday afternoon, sending water gushing into a mine run by the Huayuan Mining Co. trapping 172 miners, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Later a further 9 were trapped in the nearby Minggong Coal Mine. China has the deadliest safety record for mine accidents. More than 5,000 died in mine accidents last year, and at least 2,100 have been killed this year alone [CNN / BBC].

Meanwhile rescuers are still making efforts to rescue 6 miners trapped in Utah in the USA. The miners have been trapped for 10 days after a collapse which owners of the mine say was caused by an earthquake. There is some evidence for this in that a 4.5 earthquake occurred nearby [39.465N, 111.236W] on the 6th of August at 02:48 local time [08:48 GMT]. The mine is situated 5.8 km to the east. Authorities dismiss the theory however and blame is focussing on whether mining methods were the cause of the collapse. The attempted rescue has resulted in further tragedy with 3 team members being killed and another 6 injured [CNN / BBC].