Four miners were confirmed dead in floods triggered by persistent rainfall since July 27 in northwest China's Qinghai Province, said local authorities on Thursday.

The four miners all worked for a gold mine in Dulan County, Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Haixi. Two of them had been trapped in the pit and the two others had been reported missing over the past ten days.

Search and rescue efforts finally failed because of the bad weather and poor road conditions, an official said.

The flood had resulted in an economic loss of 367 million yuan (53.19 million U.S. dollars) in the local transport, electricity, communications, agriculture and husbandry industries while bringing adverse impact on the daily life of local farmers and herdsmen, the official said.

The people in Haixi Prefecture had donated a total of 260,000 yuan for flood control and disaster relief, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)