Work safety authorities in China's Shanxi province have launched a rescue operation for 12 trapped miners in a mine in Jincheng city.

A coal mine reportedly flooded around 11 p.m. local time on Saturday when 94 workers were working in it. Eighty-two miners have been rescued, but twelve remain trapped underground.

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China's work safety watchdog last month asked local authorities to initiate safety inspections at coal mine facilities to prevent deadly accidents. The country has witnessed several instances of mine flooding in the past two months due to torrential rains.

In a separate accident, a limestone mine exploded early Sunday morning in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The accident, which occurred at early 2 a.m. local time, left six workers missing and one injured.

Following heavy rains this past week, flooding has killed dozens and displaced thousands in several parts of the country. In a flood-related incident, 23 people were killed in Guizhou province on Friday.

China's National Meteorological Center on Sunday issued a renewed orange alert for rains in the south and southwest parts of the country.  It warned that thunderstorms would hit the provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from Sunday morning to Monday morning, with precipitation reaching up to 220 millimeters in some areas.

Disaster relief authorities also said that the rising water levels of riverbanks pose a great danger.

"Flood control facilities, especially main dikes, along the Yangtze River have been reinforced since 1998 to stand severe floods, but rising water levels have damaged many riverbanks in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze, posing great danger," Chen Guiya of Yangtze River Water Resources Committee said, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. 

Tagschina, Floods, Mine Flooding, Miners Trapped, Shanxi