xintai

Chinese rescuers frantically pumped water from flooded mine shafts on Monday with little hope that about 180 miners trapped for three days might be alive and as officials revealed they knew of the danger. The disaster in the eastern coastal province of Shandong is just the latest to strike China’s coal industry, the world’s deadliest.

Distraught relatives protested and demanded answers on Sunday, two days after a collapsed dike in eastern China flooded two coal mines, leaving 181 workers missing and feared dead. State media said the breach in the dike had been closed, but gave no indication if there were any signs of life.