Mine rescue may take days

Oscar Valdes, cabinet chief to Peru’s President Ollanta Humala, said yesterday it could take two or three more days to rescue nine miners trapped since Thursday in a mine in southern Peru.

Valdes, who was on site to monitor rescue operations, told journalists that an engineer working on the rescue operation said it could be delayed for “two to three more days” due to fresh collapses inside the Cabeza de Negro mine, about 325km south of Lima.

The miners, aged 22 to 59, have been trapped 820 ft underground in a horizontal tunnel since Thursday when a shaft collapsed.