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| Monday, 27 October 2003 |
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Rescuers save most trapped miners in Russia, fate of 13 unknown MOSCOW, Sunday (AFP) Rescuers lifted to safety most of the 46 miners who have been trapped by icy water in a flooded coal mine in southern Russia for nearly two days, but the fate of 13 remained unknown. Thirty-three miners had been lifted to safety from tunnels 800 meters (yards) below ground at the Zapadnaya coal mine in Russia's Rostov region. But authorities still did not know the whereabouts of another 13, whom freezing water first trapped late Thursday afternoon. The rescue operation was halted as gas was discovered in the tunnel where rescuers were working, and all rescuers were lifted to the surface, officials said. "The operation has become dangerous because of the gas. We have decided to lift the rescuers to the surface," said a spokesman for the Rostov region governor. Two rescuers were intoxicated with gas, an official with the emergencies ministry said. In all, 71 miners were working in Zapadnaya's shafts when numbing water first rushed in. Twenty-five scrambled to the surface right away; on Saturday morning rescuers located a group of 33, but nothing has been heard from the second group of 13.The miners - exhausted, soaked, their faces blackened - were lifted in a service lift a handful at a time to emerge to crowds of straining, anxious relatives. Wives pushed forward to see the men's faces and as some broke into smiles and sighs of relief, others broke down in tears. The miners were immediately taken to hospital by ambulance. Several were suffering from hypothermia, while others were said to be in good shape. "The miners are not in a life threatening condition, their condition is satisfactory," said Dmitry Burtsev, the senior doctor at the hospital of Novoshakhtinsk, where the mine is located. |
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