Rescue tunnel 'within yards' of trapped miners

Emergency workers today stopped the flow of water into a flooded mine in southern Russia where 13 miners have been trapped for five days, officials said, as drillers came within yards of the men’s presumed location.

Rescuers are tunnelling through solid rock from an adjacent mine to reach the miners. By this morning, the tunnellers were 6-10ft away from the area where the men are believed to have been stranded by the flood of icy water, said Major General Viktor Kapkanchikov of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry.