4 rescued from caved-in coal mine in north China

Four of the 12 miners trapped underground a caved-in coal mine in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have been rescued by 10:15 a.m. Saturday, rescue headquarters said. Two miners were lifted out of the collapsed mine at about 10 a.m., and were instantly sent to a nearby hospital, Xinhua reporters said at the scene. Rescuers had previously pulled out two other miners early Saturday morning from the mine that caved in around 3:10 a.m. Friday. The mine is 350 km northeast of the autonomous regional capital city of Hohhot. Rescuers are continuing their efforts to save the remaining eight other trapped miners. Three of them have been confirmed alive, sources with the headquarters said. At the time of the accident, 13 miners were working underground and only one succeeded in fleeing for his life, according to the headquarters. An initial investigation found that the mine's floor-to-roof pillars were "insufficient." The cave-in is the latest in a series of recent coal-mine accidents in China. On Nov. 10, an underground gas outburst in the southwestern province of Yunnan trapped 43 miners, of whom 35 have been confirmed dead while the other eight remain missing. On Tuesday, another gas leak in a coal mine in the central province of Hubei killed six miners.