Four miners were rescued on Friday morning after being trapped for more than five days in a flooded coal mine in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

The accident occurred on Saturday when 22 miners were working underground at Furuixiang Coal Mine in Qitaihe city. Six miners managed to escape afterward, and another two were escorted out of the mine on Sunday.

Three miners have been confirmed dead, and rescuers are searching for the remaining seven who are still missing, said Li Shuguang, director of Qitaihe city government's emergency center and spokesman for the rescue operation.

The four miners were together when rescuers found them at about 3:50 am, he said, adding that the place where they were staying was higher than other regions in the coal-mine shaft.

They were taken out of the coal mine at about 5:35 am and immediately sent to a hospital, Li said.

Two could talk to the rescuers, but the other two were too weak to speak, he said.

Zhang Jianming, head of the Qitaihe People's Hospital, said the four miners were slightly dehydrated and their physical condition stabilized after basic medical treatment.

Wang Yonghe, one of the rescued miners, said their clothes got wet when they tried to escape from the flood.

"The four of us rushed onto a higher place when the flood occurred. When we saw that the flood had retreated, we went down to the track and tried to escape, but the floodwaters returned and we had to go back to the higher place with wet clothes," he said.

The four miners sat back-to-back and dried their clothes with each other's body warmth, Wang said.

Wu Jie, another rescued miner, said they had to sleep on stones when they were tired and drink a little water when hungry.

The power of all their lamps was used up on Thursday night, even though they used only one lamp at a time to save power, Wu said.

"We could not see anything, even our fingers," he said. "We were so frightened."

The miners talked and encouraged each other not to lose hope, he said.

Wu said he could not help crying when he saw a fine light from the rescue team on Friday morning.

The water level in the coal mine had dropped by 26 meters as of Friday after 48,900 cubic meters of water had been pumped out, but a great deal of water remains in the mine, according to the Qitaihe Bureau of Work Safety.

The cause of the flood is still under investigation, the bureau said.

Contact the writers at zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn and anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn