Rescuers have recovered the body of one of the 123 miners who were trapped in a flooded coal mine in south China's Guangdong Province for the past three days, officials said Wednesday.

The body was found and carried to the ground early Wednesday morning.

"The chance of survival for the trapped miners is slim after being stranded for more than 55 hours," said You Ningfeng, vice governor of Guangdong, who is in charge of rescue operation.

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

The accident occurred at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, when an estimated 15 million to 20 million cubic meters of water gushed into the shaft as the owners of the privately-run colliery had fled and left no records. only four miners escaped from the site.

"I can't remember anything about the sudden flooding," Zeng Huanbiao, one of the survivors, said in bed of a local hospital.

The 30-year-old miner, who was washed out of the pit, now suffers inspiratory pneumonia, kidney and lung traumas and breathing difficulty, a physician in charge said.

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

Experts from the state production safety watchdog and relevant local departments have worked out a more efficient rescue plan including reinforcing the pumping efforts and drilling spillways from adjacent pits.

At present, four pumps are working round-the-clock and five high-power ones are to be installed. But the rescue may require a long spell as the coal mine is feared to be full of water.

Senior officials from the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection have arrived at the venue to supervise investigations along with provincial supervisors.

The local government has ordered all mines to stop production since a similar accident took place a month ago. But owners of Daxing Mine ignored the order.

"The latest flooding in Daxing Mine is a grave accident of production safety," said Zhang Dejiang, secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, at a conference held in Guangzhou Tuesday.

The official blamed the accident on illegal production and the local departments' inadequate management of coal mines.

"A thorough examination on all local mines should be launched immediately and those who fail to meet the national production safety standards must be closed," Zhang said.

Source: Xinhua