150 trapped in flooded coal mine

More than 150 workers have been trapped by a flood at a big coal mine under construction in northern China, news agency AFP is reporting today.

Water gushed into the Wangjialing mine in Shanxi province as 261 people were at work underground on Sunday, officials said.

The state news agency Xinhua put the number of trapped workers at 153.

It is the latest in a long list of accidents in the country's notoriously dangerous mining sector.

According to official statistics, 2,631 coal miners were killed last year in China, down by 584 from 2008.