The first accident occurred at 5:00 am local time (2200 GMT Tuesday) in Tonghua city in northeastern Jilin province, the authorities said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Fifteen miners were trapped after the Xiren coal mine flooded, Liang Xueping, deputy director of the work safety supervision administration in Tonghua, told Xinhua.

Rescuers could hear the cries for help from the trapped miners and had been pumping out water for several hours, said Liang.

The second accident happened at noon at the privately-owned Danangou mine in Datong city in northern Shanxi province.

An official told Xinhua some 34 miners were trapped originally and that rescuers extracted 11, one of whom died in hospital.

But rescuers told Xinhua that many more were trapped, although they could not provide an exact figure.

Rescue operations were continuing and an investigation was launched to determine the nature of the accident, the report said.

Floods, explosions and collapses make China's mines the world's most deadly with official figures showing around 6,000 workers dying in the industry last year.

Labour rights groups, such as the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, say the real number could be as high as 20,000 each year.

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