Remains of four dead miners have been found underground at a coalmine flooding accident that occurred early Wednesday morning in Luliang City, north China's Shanxi Province, local rescuers confirmed on Thursday.

At 6:50?AM on Wednesday, the accident occurred at Leijiagou Coal Mine at Zhongyang County of Luliang, when 48 miners were working underground. Of the total, 40 managed to escape and the remaining eight were trapped.

Zhang Zhongshen, vice mayor of Luliang, said there is only a small amount of water in the flooded shaft, but with dense gas. Rescue work is continuing, according to Zhang.

Zhang said the four dead miners were all from southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The mine is a legal county-run coal producing entity with an annual production capacity of 210,000 tons.

The cause of accident is under investigated.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2006)