65 trapped Mexican miners in extreme danger
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-20 08:52

A gas explosion Sunday at a coal mine in northern Mexico trapped 66 miners below ground and left 12 hospitalized with burns and broken bones, officials said.

Rescue workers talk at a mine site owned by Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, after a gas explosion Sunday Feb. 19, 2006 at a coal mine in the town of Sabinas, 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass on the Mexico-U.S. border, trapped 66 miners below ground and left 12 hospitalized with burns and broken bones.(AP Photo/Juan Montano)

The trapped miners had a limited supply of oxygen and their lives were in extreme danger, said Ruben Escudero Chavez, director of the Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, a private company which owns the pit.

The explosion occurred before dawn at the mine near the town of Sabinas, 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass on the Mexico-U.S. border, Escudero said.

The mine is about 985 feet below ground, he said.

It was not immediately clear whether the mine had airtight chambers, such as those that saved 72 potash miners trapped last month after fire broke out in a Canadian mine.

Daniel Romo of Coahuila state's emergency services said the injured miners were being treated for burns and broken bones.

"Their lives are not in danger," he said.

Romo said they did not know how long it would take to reach the miners trapped underground.

Mexican soldiers and state police, as well as the Coahuila governor, also arrived at the scene to assist.

Last month, 14 miners died in two separate accidents at mines in West Virginia. Two men died in a fire Jan. 21 at a mine in Melville, nearly three weeks after 12 men died after an explosion near Tallmansville.