Little hope for trapped miners
2006-02-21 21:09
Mexico City - There was little hope left for the rescue of 65 coal miners trapped underground since Sunday just south of the border with the US, according to reports from the mine scene on Tuesday.
The rescue teams have only progressed 500m into a tunnel that partially collapsed during a gas explosion, according to a spokesperson for the mine company, Industrial Minera Mexico, in the state of Coahuila.
No contact had been established with the miners, and air in the closed mine shaft had likely been used up, he said.
"Hope is the last to die," the wife of one of the trapped miners, Guadalupe Gonzales, was quoted as saying in media reports.
Hundreds of loved ones kept a vigil outside the gate to the coal mine as soldiers and civilian rescue teams worked into the night on Monday trying to clear air shafts and communicate with the workers.
The miners are trapped about 100m below ground.
Each miner had six hours of oxygen on his belt, and mine officials said they were pumping air into ventilation shafts, but it was unknown whether it had reached the trapped men.
The apparent cause of the explosion was methane gas that built up inside the tunnels.
Some mine workers escaped the explosion with injuries. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA