Poison gas danger at blast mine
A drilling team which broke through to the section of a New Zealand coal mine where 29 workers have been missing for almost six days was greeted by a blast of potentially deadly gases.
Officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of pulling the men, including two Britons, alive from a network of tunnels one and a half miles deep in the side of a mountain, following a powerful explosion on Friday.
Pete Rodger, 40, from Perthshire, and Malcolm Campbell, 25, from St Andrews, Fife, are among the miners missing.
Nothing has been heard from the miners since the blast at the mine on the South Island. Toxic and potentially explosive gases have kept rescuers from entering the mine, though an army bomb disposal robot crawled two-thirds of a mile into the tunnel on Tuesday and found a miner's helmet with its fixed light still glowing.
Drillers using a diamond-tipped bit to prevent sparks finished boring a 530ft hole to the mine's main tunnel, close to where the missing men are believed to have been at the time of the blast. It was a key step, giving officials their first information from that section of the mine and allowing testing for levels of dangerous gases.
Hot air and gas rushed the hole when the chamber roof was punctured and Pike River Coal chief Peter Whittall said initial tests showed it was "extremely high in carbon monoxide, very high in methane and fairly low in oxygen". Carbon monoxide is extremely poisonous, while explosive methane is the gas believed to have ignited in Friday's blast.
"The environment is still unstable, it is unsafe and it is not appropriate to send rescue teams underground at this time," said Gary Knowles, the police superintendent in charge of the rescue operation.
Mr Whittall said the helmet spotted by the robot belonged to one of two miners who were not as deep inside as the missing workers and who stumbled to the surface with minor injuries shortly after the blast. He said it offered a small hope that if any of the missing miners had survived, they may not be in complete darkness.
A second robot had been sent into the mine and a third was being prepared. Only the third robot has the capacity to explore deep enough into the mine to potentially spot the miners. Rescuers also plan to feed a camera down the bore hole.
New Zealand's prime minister John Key has warned the nation to prepare for the worst, as frustration among some relatives of those missing builds.
(google.com/hosted news)
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