Rescuers have drained the water from a flooded coal mine in north China's Shanxi Province in a desperate effort to locate 11 people trapped underground -- but stone and mud debris in the shaft is still hindering rescue work.

A flash flood swamped the Makulue colliery in Xingxian County after a 30-minute rainstorm in which 45 millimeters of rain hit the area on Sunday evening.

The flood trapped nine miners working underground and another two workers who had entered the shaft to tell the miners to evacuate.

"It is still unclear whether or not the 11 trapped people are alive," said an official with the rescue headquarters. The Makulue colliery is a licensed one with an annual production capacity of 60,000 tons.

In central China's Hunan Province, rescuers retrieved two bodies as of Sunday afternoon after a coal mine flooded on Wednesday. Three others remain missing.

The Beichong No.2 coal mine in Chenzhou City, Yongxing County, was flooded at about 11 PM Wednesday as some 300 cubic meters of water poured into the pit, where nine people were working.

Four miners escaped. As of this report rescue workers were still trying to save the remaining three workers.

The mining license of the colliery, with an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons of coal, had expired at the end of 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2007)