The Singareni Collieries authorities have retrieved the bodies of 17 miners who met a watery grave due to the flooding of a mine at Godavarikhani two days ago.

Singareni Collieries Executive Director T R K Rao told rediff.com: "The bodies have been identified and handed over to relatives."

Till Wednesday morning, about 500,000 gallons of water had been pumped out from the mine. Another 100,000 gallons was pumped out by the evening.