Twelve trapped miners found alive

Rescue workers found alive a majority of 13 miners who had been trapped for six days, Russian media said today. There were conflicting reports as to whether all of the miners survived the ordeal.

The Ekho Moskvy radio station said the men had been found early this morning, when drillers managed to break through to the pitface where the miners had sought refuge. The ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies carried similar reports, citing emergency officials.

Rescuers had tunnelled through solid rock from an adjacent mine to reach the miners, who had been stranded by icy water.

Emergency officials had worked to plug the hole through which water had flowed into the shaft.

Hundreds of tons of rock, soil and reinforced concrete pillars had been dumped into the shaft to seal the leak.