Hope fading for 65 Mexican miners

Miners stand at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine complex near San Juan de Sabinas, northern Mexico. Picture / Reuters

MEXICO - Relatives of 65 men trapped by a Mexican coal mine explosion were close to giving up hope today, after tests showed toxic gas had surely killed many of them.

Rescue officials and mine owner Grupo Mexico said air tests indicated at least half of the miners missing since Sunday were dead because they were believed to be in sections of the mines where there was simply not enough oxygen to sustain life.

Labour Minister Francisco Salazar said late on Thursday that up to 25 miners had probably died in one part of the Pasta de Conchos mine, in the northern state of Coahuila. "If anyone breathed that mixture of gas they are dead," Salazar said.

Further tests on Friday produced the same conclusion in another area of the mine where nine men were thought to be working at the time of the methane gas explosion.

"We don't want to accept it, but it is true. If there is no oxygen, there is no life," said Raul Alvarez, 47, whose brother and two brothers-in-law were missing.

"I'm aware it is more difficult, because many days have passed. Now I'd like God to let us get them out however possible to end the uncertainty," said Juanita Artiaga, the sister of another missing miner.

Rescue teams struggled to dig through hundreds of tonnes of rubble to reach the men. So far, no bodies have been found and no contact has been made with the trapped men.

"There is no sign of life of anyone. No shoe, no evidence of them there," mine manager Ruben Escudero said.

Emergency teams had yet to reach the deeper areas of the mine. Some relatives still clung to hopes that air pockets or oxygen pumped in by ventilation machines might be keeping some of the men alive.

"They can say what they want, but we have faith that they are going to come out," said Lourdes Salazar, 36, whose brother, Juan Arturo, was trapped in the mine.

President Vicente Fox said his government still hoped a good number of the men could still be rescued and that rescue efforts would continue at full pace.

Some 400 people had held a vigil at the mine entrance earlier this week. Many have since drifted back home and the talk at the mine gates on Friday turned to Grupo Mexico's responsibilities to compensate the families of those killed.

Grupo Mexico denies charges by miners that the coal mine was unsafe, and cites a Labour Ministry inspection that gave it the all-clear as recently as February 7.

- REUTERS