Efforts to save Welsh miners continuing
South Wales Police said the four men trapped at the Gleision Colliery near Cilybebyll in Pontardawe are Phillip Hill, 45, from Neath, along with Charles Bresnan, 62, David Powell, 50, and Garry Jenkins, 39, all from the Swansea Valley.
The force said emergency services are continuing a “multi-agency rescue operation”, while the men’s families are being supported by family liaison officers.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who is returning from a trip to Libya, said tonight that “every support’ would be given to the emergency services, who had not yet made contact with the men.
“My thoughts are with those missing and their family and friends at this very difficult time,” he said.
“Every support will be given to the emergency services to ensure they continue to do all they can. In due course we must ensure we fully understand and learn from the causes of this accident.”
Rescuers fighting to free the miners trapped 90m underground said they believe they are all alive and well.
Major rescue efforts were continuing last night with a high chance the men would be forced to spend the night underground.
A fifth miner remains critically ill in hospital after escaping as flood water engulfed the drift mine yesterday morning.
Two other men who were with him escaped largely unharmed and are aiding the rescue operation.
A retaining wall holding back a body of water underground failed, flooding a tunnel that the seven men were in.
No contact had yet been made with them, but rescuers believe the four, all fit and healthy seasoned miners, would have fled to an air pocket to await rescue.
Chris Margetts, from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said: “What we have determined is the miners are located approximately 90 metres underground.
“They are down a 250 metre main route into the mine... There are numerous little tunnels and old workings which all potentially have air pockets in.
“They are experienced miners, they know the layout of the mine, they would know where to go in this situation.”
He said they were pumping it out and, once they were in a position to search off the main shaft, they would then systematically look through the smaller tunnels and shafts.
“The conditions down there are favourable, it’s not raining, there’s water at the bottom but the air supply is good.”
He added that rescuers were very “hopeful and optimistic” that the miners could be freed successfully.
He said they were constantly monitoring the quality of the air, but could not communicate with the trapped men.
“At all times there’s 100% effort within the mine to achieve a successful outcome we want,” he added.
An emergency centre has been set up within the community hall in the nearby village of Rhos to cater for the families of the miners.
- ACCIDENTS are rare in Britain these days but around the world the mining industry is not without risk.
The Senghenydd colliery disaster, when 439 miners were killed in a gas explosion, was the worst accident in British mining history.
That was in October 1913 and an improvement in safety conditions and the decline of the industry since means that fatalities and accidents are far less common.
But seven people have been killed in British accidents since 2006.
Around the world, there have been several high-profile mining accidents in recent years.
In November 2009, 108 Chinese people died after an explosion in Xinxing mine but the majority of the 500 or so miners were rescued.
An underground explosion in April last year at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, US, killed 29 and was the country’s worst mining accident in 40 years.
Then in August of that year, 33 Chilean miners were trapped in Copiapo mine after a cave-in.
They were rescued after surviving 69 days at the bottom of the mine.
But in November last year an explosion in the Pike River mine in New Zealand killed 29 people. Two managed to escape.
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