No survivors from mine blast

2006-11-23 14:56

Ruda Slaska, Poland - Any hopes for survivors of a deadly mine explosion in southern Poland vanished on Thursday after rescuers recovered the bodies of all 17 men who had been missing, bringing the final death toll to 23.

The men were killed by Tuesday's explosion more than a kilometre below the surface at the Halemba mine in southern Poland.

"This brings to an end this very sad day," said Zbigniew Madej, spokesperson for the state-run Coal Co., at the scene.

"Nobody has a sense of relief, but rather a great weight on their heart."

Six of the bodies were recovered shortly after the explosion and the remaining ones were located after rescue efforts resumed in the night, Madej said.

The search had to be put on hold for most of the day on Wednesday when teams encountered high concentrations of gas that they feared could cause a second explosion.

It resumed shortly before midnight and the rescue teams found the bodies after digging through hundreds of meters of rubble for more than three hours, Madej said.

In addition to bringing down the rubble, the methane gas explosion would have produced temperatures of some 1 000 Celsius Madej said.

It may take some time to determine whether the miners were killed in the initial blast, by the cave-ins, or whether they died afterward, rescue officials said.

- AP