53 trapped in east China gold mine fire, over 200 escape

JINAN - Rescuers are in contact with 32 of 53 trapped miners following a fire that engulfed a gold mine in east China's Shandong province Friday, local authorities said Saturday.

Altogether 64 people were initially trapped when the fire broke out at about 5 pm at the Lingnan Gold Mine in Zhaoyuan, a small city under the jurisdiction of Yantai city, and 11 had been lifted to the ground safely, a spokesman with the Shandong Provincial Emergency Affairs Office told Xinhua.

Thirty-two miners have been contacted by rescuers as of 12:30 am Saturday and they remain in safe areas underground while the other 21 remain in at-risk areas of the mine, he said.

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The exact number of people working underground when the fire broke out needs to be checked, but a spokesman with the Yantai municipal government earlier told Xinhua that more than 200 workers had been brought to safety.

Power was cut off underground after the fire and there was air in some areas in the shaft, he said.

The provincial government had launched a rescue operation, he added.

An initial investigation showed that the fire was likely caused by an underground cable, he added.

No further details were provided.

The province's Communist Party chief Jiang Yikang and governor Jiang Daming are on their way to the scene to oversee the rescue.