Rescuers finally succeeded Saturday morning in pulling out three coal miners who have been trapped in a flooded shaft for five days in central China's Hunan Province, local authorities said.

The trapped miners were very weak and rushed to a local hospital immediately.

Too much silt underground had hampered the rescue operation, rescuers said. To date, three miners of the 12 trapped had been pulled out alive and bodies of five others were found with the rest four still missing.

The coal mine flood occurred at around 3:40 PM on Monday at Changcheng Mine in Huangfengqiao town, Zhuzhou city when 31 miners were working underground.

Rescue teams have been dispatched from neighboring cities to rescue the trapped miners, but heavy rain has hampered their efforts for a while.

The Changcheng Mine is a private mine with a designed production capacity of 30,000 tons a year. Its license and certificates have not expired.

(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2007)