The sounds at the Wangjialing mine in the northern province of Shanxi were the first signs of life since the mine was flooded Sunday afternoon, rescue official Zhao Chuan said.
"I'm so happy to hear the news, and I think everybody is," Tang Yinfeng, whose brother-in-law is trapped, said Friday night. "The rescue work is much faster than before. We're grateful for their effort."
Footage on the state broadcaster also showed rescuers tapping on pipes with a wrench, and then cheering and jumping for joy when they heard a response. One man wiped tears from his eyes.
Government officials say the flood was triggered when workers digging tunnels broke through into an old shaft filled with water. About 3,000 rescuers were working around the clock to pump water out of the mine Friday. Earlier, relatives had complained the work was proceeding too slowly.
Wen Changjin, an official from the news center set up at the site, said rescuers tapping on the pipes began to hear tapping responses from about 820 feet (250 meters) below ground at around 2 p.m.
Zhao told The Associated Press by telephone that he had heard from colleagues that another rescue team reported hearing people shouting underground as well but he could not immediately confirm that account. Wen said officials at the news center had not heard reports of shouting.
He said rescuers have started sending glucose and milk down the pipes to the spot where the tapping was heard.
Zhao was quoted by state-run China Central Television as saying that an iron wire was found tied to a drill rod and rescuers think it may have been attached by one of the trapped miners. Images of the iron wire showed it had been shaped into a circle, with its ends twisted together.
The 153 workers were believed to be trapped on nine different platforms in the mine, which was flooded with up to 37 million gallons (140,000 cubic meters) of water, the equivalent of more than 55 Olympic swimming pools, state television has reported.
Rescuers said four of the platforms were not totally submerged, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Friday evening.
"It is believed that some workers may have a chance of survival," a spokesman for the rescue headquarters, Liu Dezheng, told state media Wednesday. "We will go all out to save them."
The water level underground had dropped by 2.6 yards (meters) as of noon Friday, Xinhua reported.
David Creedy, a former mine consultant who now works in China as coal mine methane director for Sindicatum Carbon Capital, said if the mine's tunnels remain open with no cave-ins, rescuers should be able to reach the miners by pumping out the water or sending a diver through.
He said the survival of those trapped depends on several factors, including how cold and wet they are and how much air is available.
"Certainly for the current time, a week or so, there's a good chance," he said.
Another mine safety expert said the quality of the air below ground was a concern.
"It's not only the oxygen but whether the air has poisonous gases and whether the miners can drink the water or if it's polluted, since it came from an abandoned mine," added David Feickert, who advises the Chinese government.
A preliminary investigation found that the Wangjialing mine's managers caused overcrowding in the shaft by assigning extra tunneling crews in a rush to finish the work, and ignored warning signs, the State Administration of Work Safety said.
"Water leaks were found numerous times on underground shafts," but the mine's managers "did not take the actions necessary to evacuate people," it said.
It could prove to be the deadliest mine accident in China since a coal mine flood in eastern Shandong province in August 2007 killed 172 miners.
China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, despite a multiyear government effort to reduce fatalities. Most accidents are blamed on failure to follow safety rules or lack of required ventilation, fire controls and equipment.
Accidents killed 2,631 coal miners in China last year, down from 6,995 deaths in 2002, the most dangerous year on record, according to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.
Also Friday, officials said the death toll from an explosion at another mine in central China had risen to 19 people, with 24 still trapped underground.
A gas leak caused Wednesday night's blast, according to a report on the Web site for Luoyang city in the central province of Henan.
In a third accident, a coal mine fire in the northwestern province of Shaanxi killed nine people Thursday evening, Xinhua said. Another 17 miners escaped. Xinhua did not say what caused the accident.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer
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