The death toll from a massive flood at a Chinese coal mine rose to 25 on Friday, state media reported, as rescue efforts pressed on despite fading hopes of finding any more survivors.
Thirteen people were still missing underground at the huge unfinished Wangjialing mine in the northern province of Shanxi, 12 days after it was flooded in yet another accident in China's dangerous mining sector.
The flood left 153 trapped underground, but in what officials dubbed a "miracle," 115 were rescued alive Monday in a rare piece of good news for an industry plagued by a notoriously poor safety record.
Some of the workers said they had survived for more than a week by eating tree bark, sawdust, paper and even coal.
Rescuers have narrowed their search down to two sections of the mine, but conditions underground have become more and more dangerous, officials say, with risks of gas explosions and further water leaks.
Liu Dezheng, the spokesman for the rescue headquarters, said that one of the sections in particular was "surrounded by perils," according to the official Xinhua news agency.
"The chances of survival of those workers trapped in that section is remote," he said.
On Thursday, hundreds of personnel working underground to find the missing workers were forced to retreat when water began seeping through a ceiling in the shaft.
And gas levels had also gone way beyond acceptable levels in some parts of the mine, putting workers at risk of a sudden explosion.
Adding to this, rescuers were working round the clock, living in dirty, cramped conditions and getting very little sleep. Some had even fallen ill.
Safety standards are widely flouted in China's mines in the rush to meet surging coal demand — source of about 70 percent of the country's energy.
The flood is the latest deadly accident to embarrass the government, which has responded to the routine disasters in recent years with a much-touted campaign to improve safety and shut dangerous mines.
More than 2,600 miners were killed in China last year, according to government figures, although labour activists say the actual numbers are probably far higher.
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