Water gushed into the Xujiaba Tianchi mine in Sinan county Sunday when 80 miners were in the shaft, Wu Ming, an official at the mine, told AFP.

Forty-four workers got out safely, but the others were unaccounted for, he said.

"Right now we have five pumps working to evacuate the water, we still don't know how deep the water is," Wu said. "At this time it is hard to say if those in the mine have a chance to survive."

So far no casualties have been reported.

Xinhua news agency said late Monday that despite efforts to pump out the water, the water level was still rising although at a slower rate than Sunday.

In Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao ordered local officials to take all necessary measures to rescue the missing miners.

"Organize all forces, take all necessary measures, all efforts must be used to save the people in difficulty," Wen was quoted by China News Service as saying.

Provincial authorities had arrived on the scene to assess damage and conduct the rescue work, adding that the mine was a small township-run operation registered with the local government, Wu, at the mine office, said.

It was unclear what measures the government would take, but, as often happens in these cases, other small mines were likely to be shut down for safety inspections.

China's mining industry has been blighted by a spate of disasters in recent weeks, including the deaths of 166 people in Shaanxi province and 148 miners in Henan province, both from gas explosions.

Also this month, mining operations in the Guizhou village of Zuojiaying were seen as a possible cause of a devastating landslide that killed at least 39 people, state press said.

A lack of awareness and investment in safety procedures at mines has been seen as key element in the recent series of accidents.

Critics say safety and lives are being sacrificed to meet high demand for coal to fuel China's economic boom, while mine shutdowns after disasters only exacerbate shortages and force mines elsewhere to increase capacity at the expense of safety.

On Friday, British and US mine safety experts said in the United States that China should look to the industry in those countries if it seriously wanted to cut down on fatalities and improve safety standards.

For example, more than 100,000 coal miners have died in work-related accidents in Britain since 1850, but the rate of deaths decreased drastically after sustained efforts to make mining safer.

"Because we have been through that, should China have to go through it?" said Dave Feickert, a former British labor union official and coal mining expert. "It's really important that our governments get behind that issue."

China officially reports about 7,000 mine fatalities annually, but labor rights groups say the real figure could be around 20,000.

They claim many accidents are unreported in an effort to keep mines open and to avoid costly fines for fatalities.

China's mines, which produce 35 percent of the world's coal but have 80 percent of the coal mining deaths, are considered the most dangerous.

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