Rescuers on Wednesday found three bodies at a flooded coal mine in north China's Shanxi Province where 10 miners have been trapped since early Tuesday morning, local authorities said.

The owner of the illegal mine at Wangfeng Township, Wanbailin District of Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, fled after the accident and local police are searching for him, a spokesman with the Taiyuan Municipal Bureau of Work Safety told Xinhua.

Rescuers are struggling to pump water to reach the other trapped miners, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)