Trapped workers freed from flooded Russian mine

Rescue workers today began lifting to the surface 46 miners trapped underground in a flooded coal mine for nearly two days in southern Russia.

The miners were taken from the shaft in groups of three or four in a special elevator cage. By midday, seven miners were brought to the surface. All were taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, and one was reported to be in a serious condition.

The miners were working some 800 meters (2,625 feet) below ground on Thursday when water from a subterranean lake leaked into a shaft above them, blocking their way to the surface, according to Col. Viktor Shkareda, head of the regional emergency department.

A two-man rescue team that had gone 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 and found alive.

As the miners and rescuers emerged, some miners refused to be put on stretchers. One broke free and went to a rescue worker to shake hands. “Thanks folks for saving us. We are fine now,” he said.

The rescued miners were covered with coal dust and their clothing was soaked after two days of being trapped underground in knee or waist-high water.

About 200 relatives waited outside the mine, standing behind police cordons preventing them from speaking to the rescued miners. Authorities said relatives could meet them later in the hospital after medical checkups.

There were 71 miners working in the Zapadnaya mine in the Rostov-on-Don region, about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) south of Moscow, when the accident happened, Shkareda 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 had 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 ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

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

According to ITAR-Tass news agency, it was the second such accident at the Zapadnaya mine this year. The agency said water flooded the mine in February, but there were no workers inside at the time.

Accidents are common in the Russian coal industry, and miners stage frequent protests over wage delays and declining safety standards. According to the Independent Coal Miners’ Union, 68 miners were killed last year and 98 in 2001.