'No hope' for 181 Chinese miners

Hundreds of fellow miners joined in the rescue effort

There is "no hope" that the 181 Chinese coal miners trapped underground for almost a week have survived, a senior provincial official has told reporters.

Huang Sheng, deputy governor of Shandong province, said the amount of rainfall that flooded the mine was much greater than anyone expected.

He stressed again the official view that it had been a "natural disaster".

Angry families of the miners have been demonstrating this week, insisting bad management was to blame.

China has one of the worst records in the world for mine safety. Official figures say more than 4,700 coal miners died last year, although independent groups put the figure much higher.

'Exceeded records'

Some 750 miners had been working at the collieries at Xintai city, 450km (280 miles) south of Beijing, when the nearby river burst its banks, sending flood waters cascading into the mine shafts.

Most of the miners managed to flee, although 172 became trapped at Huayuan mine and a further nine at the smaller Minggong mine nearby.

Fellow miners and volunteers have been helping emergency teams work around the clock to pump water from the mine shafts and dam up the swollen river.

For most of the week, officials had held out hope that the men could still be found alive, but this appeared to change on Thursday.

"The rain where the mine is massively exceeded our expectations and exceeded historical records," Huang Sheng told reporters. "We could not hold it back with manpower alone.

"Because of the large amount of water, we think there is no hope of survivors. We've been speeding up the pumping of water every day. Experts say it will still take a few days."

Relatives of the miners have been angry at what they say has been a lack of openness about what happened, and on the progress of the rescue effort.

They have also been angered by the verdict that it was a "natural disaster", saying the authorities were trying to avoid culpability for the flooding.

Mr Huang stressed again that the "initial conclusion" pointed to a natural disaster "but for the final conclusion we'll have to wait for the state to decide.

"We will deal with it seriously according to the law. As to who ought to shoulder responsibility, it will be looked at in accordance with the law," he told reporters.