XINTAI, China — It could take months to drain the water from two flooded coal mines where 181 miners have been trapped for four days in eastern China, a rescue official said Tuesday.
Families of the miners questioned why safety warnings were ignored before a dike burst four days ago.
The waters flooded the Huayuan mine trapping 172 workers underground, while nine others are missing in a nearby mine run by a different company.
"It would take about 100 days to drain the flood water, even if 5,000 cubic meters (yards) is pumped out every hour," Bu Changsheng, a water engineering expert with the rescue headquarters, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
"The rescue operation is not progressing as quickly as we hope," Bu said.
Bu, however, refused to repeat the comment when asked later at a news conference in Xintai, Shandong province, near where the miners have been trapped since Friday afternoon.
Riot police were also deployed in public for the first time near a gate to the Huayuan offices where families of the miners gather to appeal for information.
Police tape was strung up and 20 riot police wearing helmets and carrying clear plastic shields with "Police" written in Chinese and English gathered outside.
It was not known why they had been stationed there or if they were expecting further violence. On Monday, tempers boiled over and several relatives of a missing miner smashed a reception window and display cases at a company office.
Executives from the mining company were not available for comment Tuesday. Instead, the government put three rescue experts in front of the media in a news conference that took on a defensive tone as they were pressed for information on the miners and on why the pumping effort was taking so long.
"What you're concerned about is what we are most concerned about and what everyone is concerned about," said Cheng Weimin from the State Administration of Work Safety.
Cheng and the others said the flooding was a result of extraordinarily heavy rains in the days before the dike burst.
Families of the miners, howver, said other mines in the area had pulled their workers to the surface before the dike burst because of flooding fears.
"The news reports say it is a natural disaster because of the rain, but the accident is because of the mine management. Every year there is flooding," said Ma Xiumei, who came with her sister to the mine headquarters for information about their missing brother.
At least two other mines in the area have said that worries about unusually heavy rains had prompted them to shut down Friday morning, raising questions about why the Huayuan Mining Co. continued to operate.
The state-run China Daily on Tuesday quoted one worker as saying the mine flooded every year since 2002.
"Huayuan also reportedly received six phone calls from the Xintai Administration for Work Safety on Friday, before the accident, but took no action," the newspaper reported. It said the administration urged local mines to stop production and evacuate mines during torrential rainstorms.
It also quoted Huayuan's deputy general manager, Zhang Canjun, as rejecting the allegation, saying it was "absolutely impossible," without elaborating.
Calls to the company and to the safety administration were not answered Tuesday.
Large-scale accidents like the mine flood present a test for the communist leadership to prove it can deliver on pledges to improve farmers' and workers' lives.
The coal industry is a particular challenge. Coal feeds most of China's energy needs, and accidents kill an average of 13 miners a day.