Nineteen coal miners were rescued on Tuesday from a flooded pit in northeastern China after being trapped underground for a week, taking the total number of rescued workers to 22 as three others remain trapped.

Efforts to locate and rescue the three other miners from the flooded Hengtai Coal Mine in Heilongjiang Province are still on.

The mine was flooded on August 23 when miners mistakenly drilled into a neighbouring pit which was already flooded.

While 26 miners were trapped by the floodwaters, 19 had managed to escape.

Three of the trapped miners were rescued on Saturday while the body of another worker was retrieved the next day.

“Rescuers are still going all-out to search for the three remaining miners. We will never give up,” Xu Guangguo, head of the provincial rescue headquarters and vice governor of Heilongjiang Province, said.

The first of the 19 miners rescued today was brought above ground at approximately 7 am amid cheers and applause.

“I hope you will recover soon… We are doing everything we can to save your colleagues,” Wang Xiankui, governor of Heilongjiang Province, told the miners.

The 19 rescued miners are being treated in a local hospital and are in stable condition.

“When the flood occurred, these 19 miners were located at a high position underground, which helped them survive,” Sun Yongkui, an expert on mine disaster rescue operations was quoted as saying by the news agency.

“During the 165 hours they spent underground, they managed to keep their mining lamps on continuously,” he said.

“In addition, the 278-metre-deep hole that we drilled to send oxygen to them was not far away from their position,” he added.

The mine, located in Boli County in the city of Qitaihe, is one of the many that have been operating illegally in recent years, despite the government’s efforts to shut down small, outdated mines.

A similar rescue effort was mounted last year after 115 workers were trapped in a flooded mine in north China’s Shanxi Province.

The miners spent 179 hours in the mine before being rescued.

Mine accidents continue to plague energy-hungry China taking a toll of hundreds despite claims by officials of implementing high safety standards