Trapped miners found alive

Rescue workers said today that all 46 miners trapped underground in a flooded mine shaft for nearly two days in southern Russia were alive. None of the miners were seriously injured.

The miners were working 2,625ft below ground on Thursday when water from a subterranean lake leaked into a shaft above them, blocking their way to the surface.

A two-person rescue team who went down into the mine reached the pitface where the miners were trapped. The rescuers saw and spoke with the miners after they had been located. Efforts to bring the miners to the surface were under way today.

There were 71 miners working in the Zapadnaya mine in the Rostov-on-Don region, about 600 miles south of Moscow, when the accident happened, Viktor Shkareda, head of the regional emergency department, said. He said 25 miners managed to escape to other pits and reach the surface after the leak filled several shafts.

Electricity in the mine was shut off, and the miners have low batteries and no food, Shkareda said.

Trucks were dumping hundreds of cubic meters (thousands of cubic feet) of earth and rock into the mine in an attempt to plug the leak while two teams of rescuers were trying to carve tunnels from adjacent mines.

Regional governor Vladimir Chub said that the teams were unable to use heavy equipment and that the manual labour to dig the tunnels could take up to 48 hours.

The trapped miners have little air, and the rescue teams were attempting to make special ventilation shafts.