Survival was impossible for 65 coal miners trapped underground by an explosion that burned away oxygen and left toxic gases a week ago in northern Mexico, mining company officials announced today.

Air quality tests in a section of a Mexican coal mine where as many as 26 miners could have been working have shown there is not enough oxygen to sustain life, it was announced early today.

Rescue workers chipped away at walls of debris separating them from 65 Mexican coal miners today, as family members desperate for word on their trapped relatives threatened to rush past soldiers guarding the pit.