ENSHI, Hubei Province -- Rescuers have pulled out three more trapped workers alive from a flooded rail tunnel in central China's Hubei Province, and are still looking for the other nine still trapped workers, sources with the local rescue headquarters said on Sunday.

Police and medical staff wait outside the entrance of a flooded railway tunnel while rescuers search the tunnel for trapped workers in Enshi, Central China's Hubei Province, in this photo taken on August 5, 2007. [Xinhua]

Rescuer workers have pumped out a large quantity of water, but silts and mud are still clogging parts of the tunnel where workers may be trapped, said Xu Chunli, director of the supply department of the 16th Bureau of the China Railway Engineering Corporation, which was tasked with construction of the tunnel.

The flooding accident occurred at around 1:00 a.m. Sunday at the Yesanguan rail tunnel in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, trapping 52 workers.

So far, 43 workers have been rescued and sent to hospital.

Huang Yingquan, a rescued worker, said the water gushed up all of a sudden and some workers rushed to higher platforms.

Thanks to the force of water current, a truck weighing more than 30 tons was displaced by 80 meters. The thrust of mud and rock also distorted a concrete spraying machine weighing 50 tons and destroyed two diggers and a loader.

The 14-km-long tunnel is the longest of the 121 tunnels along the Yiwan Railway, which links Yichang City in Hubei Province with Wanzhou in Chongqing Municipality.

Rescuers said the accident happened at a site 240 meters away from the tunnel mouth, where rain water can easily reach.

Heavy rains have triggered severe flooding and mudslides in many parts of central China in the past few weeks.