All 12 trapped miners have been rescued from the collapsed colliery in southwest China's Guizhou Province at 11:40 AM on Friday, a spokesman with the provincial coal mine safety administration said.

The accident took place at around 4 PM on Wednesday at the Rongyang Coal Mine located at the Xiashan Township, Xingren County, the Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Qianxinan in Guizhou.

The 12 miners were in the process of changing shifts when the collapse occurred.

The coal mine is a licensed with a production capacity of 90,000 tons of coal a year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2006)