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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2006 
Rescue of 65 Trapped Mexican Miners Halted
 Xinhuanet
| | Rescuers suspended the search for 65 men trapped since Sunday inside a coal mine in northern Mexico because of dangerous gas levels. Pictured here are relatives of those still trapped. | 
| | Pictured here is a woman whose brother is still trapped. (Photos: Xinhua/AFP) |
Mexico City - Rescuers suspended the search for 65 men trapped since Sunday inside a coal mine in northern Mexico because of dangerous gas levels, government and mine officials said late Friday.
Mine officials said they had to stop the rescue work temporarily to lower the gas levels and improve the air quality for the safety of the rescue crew so that they could resume their efforts in a few days.
U.S. experts sent to help also think it's too dangerous to conduct rescue work in this kind of condition.
During the halt for searching trapped workers, machines will operate to pump out methane gas and improve the air quality, mine operators said.
But the news of temporary halt enraged families and friends awaiting outside the mine, and some women even attacked company officials.
Since the occurring of the accident, thousands of tones of rock and earth have been removed to avoid further explosions.
There has been no contact with the trapped workers since the explosion. But the rescuers still hope to find the trapped miners and they will resume rescue work soon.
An official of the mine said the rescue work is expected to resume in two or three days.
The miners were trapped 150 meters below ground since a gas explosion Sunday caused a cave-in in a two-km-long tunnel inside the mine. For more than five days rescuers have been slowly making their way deep into the Pasta de Conchos mine to search for the miners.
Mexican Labor Secretary Francisco Salazar said on Wednesday that the 65 trapped miners were unlikely to survive, as the studies of Mexican and U.S. scientists showed that the quality of air in the coal mine is too poor to sustain life after a huge explosion.
Salazar said the air there is "not breathable," because the methane thickness has currently reached 5.5 percent, while the oxygen is reduced to only 18.7 percent, far below the minimum level of 21 percent of oxygen necessary for normal breath.
Eighty-seven miners were inside the shaft at the time of Sunday's blast. Ten workers escaped safely, while 12 others who were rescued suffered serious injuries. |
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