Second explosion rocks coal mine, dooming hopes of there being any survivors.
GREYMOUTH, New Zealand — Police say all 29 workers missing in a New Zealand coal mine are dead after a second explosion today that no one could have survived.
Explosive and poisonous gases had prevented rescuers from entering the Pike River Mine to search for the missing men since the initial explosion Friday. But even if any of the miners had survived, the second blast would have killed them, police Superintendent Gary Knowles said.
"Unfortunately I have to inform the public of New Zealand at 2:37 p.m. today there was another massive explosion underground, and based on that explosion no one would have survived," said Knowles, who was in charge of the rescue operation. "The blast was prolific, just as severe as the first blast."
The second blast came not long after the first progress in days for the rescue attempt, when a drilling team broke a narrow shaft through to the section of the mine where the 29 missing men were thought to have been working. And two robots had crawled into the tunnel, giving authorities their first view of the inside of the mine.
It wasn't immediately known what triggered the second blast, which came almost exactly five days after the initial explosion.
Pike River Coal Ltd. chief executive Peter Whittall said the rescue teams weren't doing anything that could have triggered it.
"It was a natural" event, Whittall told reporters.
source: http://www.statesman.com
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