Eleven miners were confirmed dead and another 15 were still missing after a colliery flooded in the city of Zaozhuang in East China's Shandong Province.

"The bodies of 11 miners have been found," an official surnamed An with the State Administration of Work Safety told China Daily Monday. An refused to give her full name.

The accident took place at about 10:15 pm on Saturday at the Mushi coal mine in the Tengzhou area of Zaozhuang, trapping 26 miners working underground, said administration sources.

Two miners were saved and rescue efforts were still under way last night, said an official in charge of rescue work at the site.

According to an official with the provincial coal-mine production-safety bureau, who refused to be named, the disaster was caused by water leaking from a surface pool, reported Xinhua News Agency.

Most parts of Shandong Province have experienced heavy rainfall this month, increasing the risk of flooding in coal mines, it said.

Also on Saturday, a gas explosion occurred at a coal mine in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, killing nine miners, according to the safety administration.

Since the rainy season began, some of China's coal mines have begun to suffer from the increasing threat of water leakage, administration officials said.

In mid-July, coal-mine floods trapped 42 miners at a colliery in Central China's Henan Province, according to the administration.

Fifteen miners have been confirmed dead and another six are missing, the administration said.

(China Daily July 29, 2003)