Nine rescued alive from flooded China mine - state TV
* Nine miners found alive * Survived for over 179 hours * 153 trapped in flood last week
NINE workers have been rescued alive from a Chinese coal mine, more than a week after the vast facility flooded trapping 153 miners underground, state television said early today.
China Central Television showed live footage from the Wangjialing mine in China's northern Shanxi province of several of the rescued men being rushed to hospital on stretchers.
The report showed them wrapped in green blankets with towels covering their eyes to protect them from the light after more than 179 hours trapped in the flooded mine.
An official from the work safety watchdog was quoted as saying from the scene that there were still hopes more workers could be rescued alive during the ongoing rescue operation.
The vital signs of three survivors appeared to be stable, while the others were being given emergency treatment, the report said, citing hospital officials.
At least 3000 rescuers have been racing against time to pump water out of the mine after it flooded on March 28, the latest in a series of accidents to hit the notoriously dangerous industry in China.
Rescuers entered the mine over the weekend but had said conditions were "complex" and they found more water in the shaft than anticipated.
Previously, the only vague sign of life in the huge mine came on Friday, when rescuers heard a tapping sound on a drill pipe.
The accident occurred when workers apparently dug into an older adjacent mine that had been shut down and filled with water, press reports have said.
The work safety watchdog has blamed the accident on lax safety standards by the mine owner, the Huajin Coking Coal Company, which failed to heed repeated warnings that water was accumulating in the pit days before the disaster.
Workers at the mine, which was under construction, had also been ordered to step up the pace of work in order to ensure that coal production began by October this year, the safety watchdog said.
It has been a disastrous past week for China's mining sector. Altogether, nearly 30 people have died and almost 200 are missing after five separate coal mining accidents.
Workers' safety is often ignored in China's collieries in the quest for quick profits and the drive to meet surging demand for coal - the source of about 70 per cent of the country's energy.
According to official statistics, 2631 coal miners were killed last year in China - or about seven a day - down by 584 from 2008.
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