Rescue operation has made little progress at the flooded coal mine in southern Guangdong Province, which trapped 123 miners, the rescue headquarters said Friday.

Rescuers have not found more clues about the rest 122 missing miners while water continues gushing into the tunnels, according to the headquarters.

The water level in the tunnel would not drop obviously until more water pumps put into use, said Wang Haisheng, an engineer at the site, adding the narrow tunnels caused great troubles to install the pumps.

Local government has started to organize the family members of the trapped miners to provide blood sample for DNA test on Friday.

The accident occurred at 1:30 PM on Sunday in the Daxing Coal Mine of Ningxing City, Guangdong. 123 miners were reported missing. Only four escaped. One miner's body was recovered on Wednesday morning.

Violation of safety production rules has been blamed as the main cause of the accident. 11 people, including the owner, manager, board chairman and chief technician of the Daxing Coal Mine, were caught attempting to flee after the accident.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2005)