Relatives of six miners trapped in a cave-in accused US officials of giving up on the rescue effort and leaving the men for dead.

The massive rescue effort to find six coal miners caught in a cave-in took a disheartening turn when a narrow hole drilled more than 1,800ft into the earth yielded no sounds of life and barely any oxygen.

Seismic activity has “totally shut down” efforts to reach six Utah miners trapped below ground, wiping out a day’s rescue effort, a mine executive said today.