CHONGQING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Ten miners went missing in a colliery flood in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality early on Thursday.

    A local government spokesperson said rescue work is going on.

    He said the flood occurred at around 2:15 a.m., about 10 minutes after a blast was triggered to facilitate excavation at Houshan Colliery in Nanping Township in the city of Nanchuan.

    Eighteen miners were working in the pit and eight of them escaped.

    Chongqing's Vice Mayor Zhou Mubing is at the site to oversee the rescue operation.

    Two Xinhua reporters are on their way to Nanchuan, which is at least two hours' drive away from Chongqing's city center.

    Nanchuan is a coal-rich city with 640,000 people on the border between Chongqing Municipality and Guizhou Province on its south. It has 205 million tons of proven coal reserves. Enditem