Joy as miners trapped for six days found alive

Two workers trapped nearly 3,000 feet underground in an Australian gold mine for almost a week have been found alive by rescuers but remain trapped, the mine’s manager and a local official said today.

Mine manager Matthew Gill said the two miners – Todd Russell, 35, and Brant Webb, 36 – are believed to have survived in the area where they were trapped when a small earthquake triggered a rock fall last Tuesday that sealed them in the mine and killed one of their workmates.

“More information will be released as it comes to hand, but obviously the focus will be on the rescue effort,” Gill said.

The men, from the tiny mining town of Beaconsfield in Australia’s southern island state of Tasmania, were not expected to be freed before tomorrow.

Todd Russell’s brother Stephen said the announcement was “great news”, but said the family did not yet know the full story.

Local Mayor Barry Easther hailed the news as “an absolute miracle”.

Easther said he’d been told rescuers had spoken to the men, although it was not immediately clear how they communicated.

“I’m just speechless. I got a phone call at home. I just jumped in the car, it’s just unbelievable news,” Easther said.

But he added: “There’s still a lot of technical work to do to get them out."

“I believe they’ve heard voices and exchanged conversation,” Easther said. “They say miracles happen. I didn’t think there was going to be one at Beaconsfield.”

Earlier today, about 50 residents gathered at a local church to pray for the missing miners.

Rescuers have for days slowly been digging a new 120-foot tunnel toward where the missing men were last seen in an attempt to reach them, but hopes had been fading the two men had survived their underground ordeal.

The body of the only miner killed in the rock fall was found last Thursday.

Rescuers have been blasting the new tunnel and then removing the rock before repeating the process as they inched toward where they believed the men were trapped.

Gill said early today that workers already had removed 780 tons of rock from the new tunnel.

“It’s slow and painstaking work,” he said.