Rescuers are battling to free 10 workers believed to be trapped in a coal mine in northern Mexico, while three others have been found alive, authorities said.
Military personnel and rescue dogs were deployed to the crash site in Coahuila state, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday.
“A coal mine collapsed in the municipality of Sabina, Coahuila, causing a tunnel to flood” and trapping workers, he tweeted.
“We hope to find them safe,” he added.
Lopez Obrador had said nine miners were missing, but the security ministry later said three had been rescued and taken to hospital, while 10 were believed to still be inside.
“The work will not stop until they are found,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The Mexican government guarantees all the necessary resources to carry out search and rescue operations,” the statement said.
Distraught relatives gathered at the site awaiting news, with some crying and consoling each other.
Relatives are waiting for news about the miners trapped after the collapse of the coal mine in Sabinas municipality. [Antonio Ojeda/EPA-EFE]
A woman at the scene said, through tears, that two of her children worked in the mine, although one of them managed to escape after the accident.
The Coahuila state government said the miners had been carrying out excavation work when they hit a neighboring area full of water, causing the shaft to collapse and flood.
“The mine started operating in January of this year and so far there have been no reports of any kind of anomaly,” said a statement.
Coahuila, the country’s main coal-producing region, has seen a series of fatal mining accidents over the years.
The worst was an explosion that killed 65 people at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.
Last year seven miners died after being trapped in another accident in Coahuila.
