At least 123 miners, 21 more than the 102 originally reported, are trapped in a flooded coal mine in Xingning county, Guangdong Province, officials announced Tuesday.

Following initial confusion, partly caused by the fleeing of 65 mine employees, including the general manager, local authorities said the Daxing Coal Mine employed about 400 workers, of whom more than 100 were working 480 metres underground when Sunday's accident happened.

Over the last two days "an overall investigation" of the situation arrived at the figure of 123 trapped miners, You Ningfeng, general director of the emergency office, told a press conference at the accident site.

He said many of those at management level, including General Manager Zeng Fenjiu, had run away after the accident, increasing the difficulties for rescuers trying to save the trapped men.

Officials received information about missing miners from their families, said You, who is also vice-governor of Guangdong.

Ten of the coal mine's 11 principal officials were detained by police Tuesday.

The local government issued a notice on Monday calling for the 65 runaways to return to the mine to help with the investigation.

"This is a typical case caused by violation of safety regulations," said Li Yizhong, director of the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision and Administration, who arrived at the site on Monday to supervise the rescue operation.

Li told China Daily Tuesday the mine is illegal as it has no production licences.

In addition, it continued production even though the local government had ordered all mines in Ningxing to suspend operation for safety examinations in the wake of a coal mine flooding accident on July 14.

The Daxing Coal Mine was a State-owned enterprise founded in 1990 and privatized in 1999.

It was designed with an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons. However, it produced about 50,000-60,000 tons of coal during the first half of this year, sources with the local government said.

An overall examination of all mines in the province started Tuesday and is expected to last until the end of September, the Guangdong provincial government said.

"Any mines that cannot meet safety standards will definitely be closed," said Li.

Currently, there are more than 200 small-and-medium sized coal mines in the province.

The rescue operation was stepped up further Tuesday although hopes of finding survivors fade with every passing hour. At present, four pumps are working round-the-clock and five higher-powered ones are to be installed. But pumping the mine clear could take several more days because of the huge volume of water.

A large pump introduced from Guangdong's neighbouring Jiangxi Province was installed and began pumping water last night.

The families of almost all the trapped miners have arrived at the site and are staying at Huanghuai Primary School near the accident site.

Hopes of finding their loved ones alive are slim with more than two days having passed since the initial flooding.

"All I can hope is that the miners' bodies will be found," said Zeng Huanbiao, one of the four survivors.

"I cannot remember exactly what happened," he recalled in a local hospital. The 30-year-old miner was washed along the mineshaft by the flood waters as he clutched a floating piece of wood.

Zeng, a native of Xingning, is suffering inspiratory pneumonia, kidney and lung trauma and breathing difficulties, a doctor overseeing his case said.

Despite the black outlook, Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong, pledged, "If there is a tiny hope, we will spare no efforts to rescue the trapped miners."

The rescue headquarters at the site announced a list of missing miners Tuesday morning. The missing workers mainly came from Hunan and Jiangxi provinces and Xingning.

Source: China Daily