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Families hope for miracle in Mexican mine disaster

Posted on: Saturday, 25 February 2006, 12:32 CST

By Frank Jack Daniel and Monica Medel

SAN JUAN DE SABINAS, Mexico (Reuters) - A six-day search for 65 workers trapped in a Mexican coal mine has been suspended but dozens of relatives refused to leave the mine entrance on Saturday, hoping for a miracle.

Officials suspended the search for two or three days on Friday night because high levels of methane gas threatened to spark a new explosion like the one that ripped through the mine last Sunday morning.

Rescuers say at least half of the men are almost certainly dead because there is not enough oxygen to sustain life in the sections of the mine they were working in at the time of the explosion.

Many of the hundreds of relatives who had stayed at the mine entrance have gone home. But about 40 were still there on Saturday, refusing to give up hope.

"The probabilities are fading but, until they come out with the people, you keep the hope that they find them alive," said Agustin Botello, 30, whose father was among those in the deepest section of the mine at the time of the explosion.

Since then, there has been no contact with any of the 65 missing men and their chances of survival slip with every hour that passes. Their only chance would now be if they were close to a large pocket of clean air or if ventilator shafts were pushing enough clean air into their area of the mine.

"The main thing is to have faith and hope. But with the conditions down there, you begin to doubt," said Jorge Uribe, whose uncle is among the trapped men.

"It can't continue like this. They are not animals to be left down there."

Relatives exploded in anger and roughed up Labor Minister Francisco Salazar after they were told the search was being postponed on Friday. Some complain rescuers were not given sophisticated heat-seeking equipment to locate the miners.

Mine experts drilled into the Pasta de Conchos mine in the northern state of Coahuila from the surface on Saturday in an attempt to suck out the methane gas and make it safe for rescue efforts to continue.

Five machines have been working nonstop since Friday night to check the air quality and get the gas out, a spokesman for mine owner Grupo Mexico said on Saturday.

The company has said it will pay compensation of about $70,000 for each of the men killed.

Union leaders say Grupo Mexico ignored safety concerns but the company has denied negligence and said a recent government check on conditions at the mine concluded it was safe.

Salazar said an investigation was already under way and that Grupo Mexico would face sanctions if it was found responsible for the disaster.

Source: REUTERS

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