Five miners were confirmed dead and 11 remained trapped after a locomotive that transported them to ground slipped down a pit in northwest China's Gansu Province early Tuesday morning, the provincial administration of work safety said.
The locomotive with 32 workers aboard its two carriages slipped down and overturned 150 meters further at 0:25 a.m. when a steel wire powering the vehicle up a 28-degree 704-meter-long slope broke 80 meters away from the entrance of a colliery pit in the city of Baiyin.
Sixteen workers at the Qusheng Coal Mining Co. have been rescued out of the pit, but all injured. They have been rushed to a hospital for treatment.
Of the rest, five have been found dead underground.
The rescue operation is still underway.
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