A coal mine owner in Utah today said he is hurt by critics who say he ran an unsafe mine and was not doing enough to find six missing miners trapped deep underground.

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.

Twelve miners caught in an explosion in a US coalmine were found alive today - more than 41 hours after the blast.

Thirteen coal miners in West Virginia remained trapped 260 feet below ground today, after an explosion that may have been triggered by lightning.