Chongqing -- The 12 miners, trapped underground at a flooded coal mine in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, are hopefully alive, a rescue official said later Sunday.

Liu Zuli, deputy director of the Chongqing Coal Industry Administration, said that a life monitor that had been used in the rescue work showed some life movement under the mine, which meant that the trapped miners could still be alive.

He said that rescuers were working around the clock pumping out flooded water from the mine since Thursday morning when the mine flooded at about 11:30 am that day.

Up to date, the water level in the mine has dropped 11 meters. The passage being dug by the rescuers are stretching forward and is estimated to reach the trapped miners by one-meter more work.

Liu said that preliminary investigation indicated that the accident had been caused by the workers' misdigging into an abandoned coal mine full of water.

A total of 22 miners were working at the Yanwan Coal Mine in Shapingba District of Chongqing when it was flooded. The rescue work is still continuing, he said.

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