Four miners rescued after 40-hour ordeal

Four miners emerged from a Siberian coal mine today after being trapped for 40 hours by a cave-in that killed at least 11 of their colleagues.

Rescuers had reached them after taking an indirect route to avoid triggering another rock slide.

All four were in good health, and none required hospital treatment, said Andrei Yegorov, spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry.

Their faces caked in coal dust, the men laughed with their rescuers and thanked government officials for the effort to reach them.

The search continued for one miner still missing after Monday’s ceiling collapse at the Ziminka mine in Prokopyevsk, 1,850 miles east of Moscow.

The bodies of 11 miners were taken out of the mine yesterday. Three other miners were able to crawl out of the collapsed area on their own. Two were rescued in the early hours after the collapse.

One local official said it appeared a methane explosion was to blame.

Tomorrow was declared a day of mourning for the dead miners.