BEIJING, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- A coal mine in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Thursday flooded, trapping 13 miners, authorities said.
The mine is located in Jixi city. It was not clear how many miners were working at the time the mine flooded, or what caused the flooding.
Rescue operations were underway, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
There have been a number of mine disasters in the country in recent years despite massive efforts to improve safety and crackdown on illegal mines.
An official report last year said about half of China's 5.5 million coal miners are migrant workers, many of whom are not adequately trained in basic safety rules.
Seventeen miners died this month after a massive buildup of gas in a coal mine in southwest China's Guizhou Province. The provincial governor was quoted by official media as blaming such accidents on failure to close unsafe mines.
