Swansea mourns as last minerfound dead

PRAYERS will be said across churches in Wales tomorrow for the loved ones of the four victims who perished in the Gleision colliery disaster.

Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan said the tragedy had struck a chord with him. His father had worked as a miner, and often talked about the dangers of working in collieries.

“It is not an ideal occupation — my father was a miner and I knew first hand about what a tough and dangerous job it was, and still is,” he said.

The body of the last of four miners trapped in a flooded mine near Swansea was found yesterday evening.

Phillip Hill, Charles Breslin, David Powell and Garry Jenkins went missing on Thursday when Gleision Colliery near Swansea became flooded.

The alarm was raised at around 9.20am after Hill, 45, from Neath, Breslin, 62, Powell, 50, and Jenkins, 39, all from the Swansea Valley, became trapped.

The men — part of a group of seven — were stranded in a tunnel 295ft underground after a retaining wall holding back a body of water failed, flooding the shaft.

It emerged earlier that one of the dead miners was the father of one of three miners who managed to escape.

Of the three who escaped, one is critically ill in hospital. The two other emerged largely unharmed and helped the rescue operation.

Peter Vaughan, chief constable of South Wales Police, said: “We’ve tried to bring this safely to its conclusion. Unfortunately, the conclusion we have is the one none of us wanted.”

Neath MP Peter Hain said the deaths of the miners was a “stab through the heart” of the local community, but paid tribute to the “superhuman efforts” of the rescue workers.

British Prime Minister David Cameron described the tragedy as a “desperately, desperately sad situation”.

“It is clear the emergency services have done everything they can and worked incredibly hard,” he said.

“They haven’t lacked for anything, but it is obviously a desperately, desperately sad situation for everyone concerned. The anguish of the families obviously is intense, worrying about their loved ones, and the news is not good at all.

“There is going to be desperate sorrow in those families and communities as they come to terms with the loss.”

Richard Smith, chief fire officer for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Ambulance and fire officers have all expressed to me that, within 30 years of service, they’ve never actually seen such conditions and worked in such conditions.

“I can confirm that the four deceased miners were found in close proximity to each other.

“One was on the exit side of the blockage and the three that have been recovered this afternoon were all found together in the area where they had been working and they have since been recovered from the mine.”