123 trapped in China coal mine flood

TAIYUAN, China, March 28 (UPI) -- A flood in a Chinese coal mine has trapped 123 workers, officials said Sunday.

The official government news agency Xinhua reported 138 workers escaped after underground water inundated the pit of Wangjialing Coal Mine in Taiyuan in north China's Shanxi Province.

The 112-square-mile mine is undergoing construction that is expected to increase its output from 2.3 billion tons of coal a year to 6 billion tons. The mine is affiliated with the state-owned Huajin Coking Coal Co.

Zhang Baoshun, secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Wang Jun, governor of Shanxi, were heading to the mine, the news agency said.