A flooding occurred in the early hours of Tuesday at a colliery shaft in Yichuan County, central China's Henan Province, trapping 16 workers.

According to local sources, the flooding happened around 0:40 am (Beijing time) at a working platform of Huangcun Shaft, Fenjin Coalmine of Yichuan County. Apart from miners on duty, a construction team were also working below the shaft at the time.

Liu Xinmin, deputy governor of the provincial government, rushed to the scene to organize rescue operations, together with officials in charge of supervision of workplace safety.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2003)