Rescuers hunt 46 Russian miners
Friday, October 24, 2003 Posted: 10:38 AM EDT (1438 GMT)



Rescuers prepare a buldozer for work in a shaft.



SHAKHTY, Russia (CNN) -- Rescuers are racing against time to free dozens of miners trapped underground in a flooded mine in southern Russia's Rostov region.

Officials from Russia's Emergency Ministry in Rostov-on-the-Don -- the regional capital -- said the Zapadnaya mine began filling with water Thursday evening, shorting out the mine's electrical system and making the elevator to the surface inoperable.

Media reports said 25 miners managed to escape, but 46 others, including the director of the mine, remain trapped.

The coal shaft initially started filling at about three feet (one meter) per minute, the rate had slowed to about 2 1/2 feet per hour nearly 24 hours later.

Bulldozers spent Friday shoveling dirt and concrete into the abandoned shaft as rescuers tried to clog the source of the water.

Elsewhere, engineers were digging two tunnels towards where they believe the trapped miners were -- but out of communication with the miners, the engineers could not be certain they were digging in the right spot.

With no immediate end in sight to the rise of the water, rescuers said they hoped the miners had located an air pocket beneath the water level and were waiting there for rescue.

The Russian government dispatched scuba divers and boats to the mine, about 600 miles (360 km) south of Moscow.

With air getting lower and the water level rising, rescuers also toiled under the possibility the shaft would collapse.

Mine accidents are common in Russia's coal industry.

-- CNN Correspondent Ryan Chilcote contributed to this report.



That is horrible!

Ryan