Seven people were confirmed dead after being caught in a flood at a Tangshan coal mine six days ago, a spokesman of the provincial investigation team said Thursday.

The mine, located in Tangshan's Kaiping District in north China's Hebei Province, was flooded at 10 p.m. Friday, trapping seven workers underground.

Local authorities said the trapped workers were performing maintenance work when the flooding occurred. Mining in the colliery had been halted before the incident in preparation for the mine's reconstruction.

The cause of the accident is being investigated.