Mexico prepares to launch search for trapped coal miners

Operation to rescue 10 miners will become possible once "97 percent of the water" is extracted from the mine in Agujita town of northern Coahuila state, officials say.

Many attempts by rescuers to enter the mine have failed due to debris and water levels. (AFP)

Mexican authorities have said they are finally in a position to begin searching a flooded coal mine, where 10 workers have been trapped for more than a week, offering fresh hope to anguished relatives.

"We have all the conditions to go down there today... to search for and rescue the miners," civil defence national coordinator Laura Velazquez said on Friday.

Velazquez said the rescue operation would become possible once "97 percent of the water" has been extracted from the nearly 60-metre deep mine in the town of Agujita in the northern state of Coahuila.

Several hundred rescuers, including soldiers and military scuba divers, are taking part in efforts to save the miners missing since August 3. 

On Thursday, rescuers had made several attempts to go into the main tunnels but found debris blocking their way that needed to be removed.

The water level in one of the three vertical shafts that rescuers will try to enter has been reduced to 70 centimetres, from more than 30 meters initially, Defence Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said.

The other two shafts still have 3.9 and 4.7 metres of water. Authorities consider 1.5 metres to be an acceptable water level to gain access to the crudely constructed El Pinabete mine.

Clinging for hope

The government's latest announcement provided a new glimmer of hope for families that have become increasingly frustrated with the pace of the rescue operation.

"With that level (of water) you can already enter –– God willing," David Huerta, the brother-in-law of one of the trapped workers, told the AFP news agency.

The 35-year-old said that he himself had dug for coal in small artisanal mines like El Pinabete for nearly 13 years before abandoning the dangerous, gruelling work.

At the bottom of the vertical shafts rescuers will reach the underground tunnels where the digging takes place, and where the missing miners are probably located, Huerta said.

"Crews can go in there and search faster," he added.

Coahuila, Mexico's main coal-producing region, has seen a series of fatal mining incidents over the years.

The worst accident was an explosion that claimed 65 lives at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.

Last year, seven died when they were trapped in a mine in the region.

Source: AFP

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Families fret as Mexico battles to rescue trapped miners

Scores of rescuers race against time to save 10 workers trapped in a flooded coal mine as desperate relatives watch rescue efforts at the site in the northern Coahuila state.

Soldiers, emergency workers and rescue dogs were deployed after the latest disaster to strike Mexico's main coal-producing region. (Reuters)

Families have grown increasingly anxious as they awaited word from rescue teams tasked with descending a flooded coal mine in northern Mexico to rescue 10 workers nearly 24 hours after an accident confined the crew deep underground.

The miners became trapped on Wednesday after their excavation work caused a tunnel wall to collapse, triggering flooding in three wells.

Mexico's Civil Protection agency did not immediately respond on Thursday when asked about efforts to pump out the water, and if levels were rising.

Its director, Laura Velazquez, said earlier on Thursday that time was everything, and several hundred officials were "working day and night" to assist with the rescue.

Soldiers, emergency workers and rescue dogs were deployed after the latest disaster to strike Mexico's main coal-producing region in Coahuila state, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

"What I want with all my soul is that we rescue the miners," he told reporters.

"We must not lose faith. We must not lose hope," he added.

Relatives of the miners have been waiting for news outside the facility of the coal mine where a shaft collapsed, leaving the miners trapped. (Reuters)

'I want my husband to come out all right'

Families keeping vigil remained on edge.

Erika Escobedo, the wife of one of the trapped miners, 29-year-old Hugo Tijerina, told the Reuters news agency she spent all night watching rescue efforts at the site in the northern border state of Coahuila.

"They say the water is rising," she said, describing bigger water extraction pumps she saw hauled to the site.

"I want my husband to come out all right," said Escobedo, her voice breaking in a phone interview from the site, as she watched rescuers bore another tunnel to try to reach the miners.

For now, she has told her three children not to worry about their father and that he will come home okay.

"Unfortunately, there's not much hope," Jose Luis Amaya, whose cousin and brother-in-law was among those trapped, told Milenio TV on Wednesday night.

Five other miners escaped the accident. They all received medical treatment, and two have been discharged from the hospital.

Still, Elizabeth Vielma, the mother of three men who work at the site but were not involved in Wednesday's accident, said she worried about conditions there.

"They just give them the drills and send them down," she said.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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Mobs hunt informal miners in South Africa after mass rape

Thousands of armed residents raid illegal mines and target workers, known as "zama zamas", in Kagiso township, as outrage widens over mass rape of eight women last week west of Johannesburg city.

Authorities say the situation has stabilised and 29 undocumented people had been arrested on charges of illegal immigration. (AFP)

Thousands of angry South African protesters have hunted down miners without permits, sealing makeshift shafts and burning houses, after the mass rape of eight women last week west of Johannesburg city.

Armed with machetes, golf clubs and hammers, mobs of residents on Thursday moved from one area to another on the fringes of the town's Kagiso township, trying to smoke out miners operating illegally in informal shafts.

The AFP news agency reporters at the scene saw residents torching a house thought to belong to a gangmaster.

Local television footage showed protesters using boulders to close makeshift mine shafts in a Kagiso district known as Soul City.

Police kept a distance and fired stun grenades from a helicopter to disperse the crowds.

Later in the evening, authorities said the situation had stabilised and 29 undocumented people had been arrested on charges of illegal immigration.

Police said a murder and public violence investigation was opened after the body of a man was found near the area in the morning.

It was not immediately clear if the death was linked to the protests.

Police Minister Bheki Cele has said informal miners commonly known as "zama zamas" –– believed to largely be undocumented foreigners –– were likely behind the attack on July 28 in the town of Krugersdorp.

'Zama zamas must go'

In an incident that has shocked the nation, which is usually numb to violent crime, a gang of gunmen forced their way into a music video shoot near a mine dump in Krugersdorp.

They robbed the crew and raped eight young models who were part of the cast.

Authorities have arrested more than 100 people since the assault –– most of them migrants for being in the country illegally, according to an AFP tally.

"The zama zamas must go, they are attacking our sisters," 39-year-old protester Daniel Nzuma told AFP.

Residents in the town around 30 kilometres west of Johannesburg blamed poor policing for the deepening illegal mining crisis.

Kagiso police "have failed", said Nzuma.

"The army must come and assist the police in this area to protect the community."

South Africa's commercial hub of around six million is built around mountainous dumps of soil and cavernous pits left behind by generations of mining companies that extracted gold during the 1880s gold rush.

Armed gangs of informal miners run rampages and battle for control of the abandoned shafts to exploit any remaining gold.

Source: AFP

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