By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING

Rescuers have made contact with eight of 12 people trapped underground in a flooded coalmine in northern China.

The men were among 20 people stuck underground after water flooded two mines in China over the weekend.

Rescuers told state news agency Xinhua that eight of those trapped in the mine shaft in Jincheng City since Saturday night had been reached by phone.

There was no word Monday on six people who have been trapped in Hongcai coal mine in Shuicheng County in southwest Guizhou Province since early Sunday morning.

The State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on its website Sunday that 94 miners were working underground at the Jincheng pit when the accident occurred around 11 p.m. (1500GMT) on Saturday.

The accident at Hongcai occurred around 4 a.m.