Rescuers close in on trapped miners

Emergency workers 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 yesterday morning, the tunnellers were 6ft-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.