Hope fades for Mexico miners

San Juan De Sabinas, (Mexico): Hundreds of friends and relatives of 65 missing Mexican miners hoped for a miracle on Tuesday as more than 200 rescuers dug through dirt in a frantic bid to reach the workers trapped by an explosion deep inside their coal mine.

Authorities have not heard from the miners since the explosion early on Sunday trapped them 150 meters (500 feet) below ground at the Pasta de Conchos mine near San Juan de Sabinas, in the northern state of Coahuila.

"We have not had any communication with them since the cave-in," Coahuila Governor Humberto Moreira told Mexican television.

Rescuers were forced at times to use bare hands to try to open a narrow blocked passage in the mine. Rescue operations moved slowly as heavy digging equipment was not used for fear of triggering a new explosion, officials said.

A rescue team from the US was expected by mine operators soon.

The miners were trapped following an explosion, apparently caused by gas, on Sunday at a mine owned by Industrial Minera Mexico.

There were 87 miners inside the shaft at the time of the blast. Ten workers escaped safely while 12 others who were rescued suffered from serious injuries including burns.

Asked if the trapped miners could survive for longer than 24 hours, Moreira said: "Let's hope so. Gas levels aren't very high and the ventilators are still working, pumping air into the mine."

Some 200 distraught wives, children and parents of the missing workers maintained their vigil at the mine's entrance, nearly 48 hours after the blast, desperate for word about the fate of their loved ones.

Norma Vitela's husband, Jose Guzman Angel, is among the 65 trapped miners.

"They always said the mine was bad, (my husband) said that it smelled heavily of gas," said Vitela, 53, as her daughter clung to her weeping. "But they did nothing, they told the miners everything was fine."

The workers were all on the mine's overnight shift. The mine itself is located just outside San Juan de Sabinas, home to some 40,000 people.

No word has been heard from the miners because the cave-in cut off the telephones inside. They are two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the mine's entrance.

"We do not know how they are, and we want immediate aid from everywhere," said Maria Gertrudis Hernandez, 50, whose husband was among the trapped miners.

Ruben Escudero, an official of the Office of Labor and Social Safety in Coahuila, told reporters that an inspection of the mine on February 7 revealed "a series of irregularities".

But he said none justified closing the facility. He also refused to describe the irregularities.

One worker at Pasta de Conchos, who asked for anonymity out of fear of losing his job, told AFP that "things were very bad" in the mine. The man, whose brother-in-law was trapped below, said that miners had warned of increasing danger, but the company ignored them.

Coahuila state, which borders the US, has about 95 percent of Mexico's coal reserves, and hundreds of miners have been killed in mining accidents in the area.

China has the world's most dangerous coal mining industry official figures put the death toll last year at nearly 6,000 with 23 miners dying in one blast in the north earlier this month.

Seven miners were killed in an explosion in Romania a week ago and three in South Africa a few days earlier. Last month, 12 men died in a US mine in West Virginia.