Desperate efforts to reach at least 27 coal miners missing after an explosion tore through an underground mine in New Zealand stalled yesterday as fears of another blast frustrated rescue attempts.
Police said the explosion at the coal mine on the South Island’s west coast appeared to have crippled the mine’s ventilation system, but locals said they were drawing hope from the rescue of 33 miners in Chile last month.
Two miners survived the blast at the Pike River coal mine, but there has been no contact with any others, the mining company’s chief executive said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Police said a specialist mine rescue team was at the scene, but could not go underground because the blast knocked out power to the mine’s ventilation pumps, meaning there was a danger they could ignite trapped gases.
“There’s been an explosion, they don’t know what’s caused it, they can’t just go charging in there and put other people at risk,” police spokeswoman Barbara Dunn told Radio New Zealand.
The ventilation system would also normally supply air to any surviving miners and police said they were concerned that it had been compromised by the power outage.
Reports said families of the miners were gathering at the site, at the heart of New Zealand’s coal industry about 50km northeast of Greymouth, as rescuers prepared to work through the night.
Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the rescue was difficult and could take days, but he said the experience of Chile’s miners, who were successfully brought to the surface last month after surviving more than two months in a tunnel below the Atacama Desert, was a source of inspiration.
“We are holding on to hope. Look at Chile, all those miners were trapped and they all came out alive,” he told Fairfax Media.
There were conflicting reports about how many miners were still underground, with Pike River Coal estimating 27 in the mine shaft, but police putting the number at 36.
“There are 36 tags still on the board at the mine. Those miners have not yet been heard from,” Dunn said.
Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall said the miners were about 120m beneath the surface. They had started the afternoon shift about an hour before the blast.
He said there had been no confirmed fatalities.
“I’ve not had any reports of that at all,” he said. “We’ve had two miners who’ve walked out of the mine ... we’ve had no communication with anyone else underground at this stage.”
Police said the two survivors, who received hospital treatment for moderate injuries, told rescuers three more miners were making their way to the surface, although there was no immediate confirmation they had emerged.
Ambulances, helicopters and rescue workers were on the surface ready to treat any injured miners, with ambulance officers saying they were preparing for a long operation.
The mine involved in yesterday’s explosion is close to the site of another disaster in 1968, when a blast killed 19 people.
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