mexico mine blast was "tremendous", hopes dim

[Lucky]

SAN JUAN DE SABINAS, Mexico (Reuters) - The chances of rescuers finding survivors among 65 Mexican miners trapped by a gas explosion in a coal mine dimmed on Thursday as emergency teams found scenes of devastation from the blast.

The explosion, at the Pasta de Conchos mine in the northern state of Coahuila on Sunday, dislodged huge piles of rocks inside the mine which slowed miners trying to dig through to their missing colleagues.

"They are so big that it shows the force of the blast was tremendous," said Ruben Escudero, manager of the mine at the town of San Juan de Sabinas.

Rubble weighing some 70 tonnes sat in a tunnel where two miners were believed to have been working when the methane gas erupted, said Xavier Garcia, head of Mexican mining operations at mine owner Grupo Mexico.

Men digging with spades and even their bare hands found no sign of the pair.

"We were surprised. The explosion was much bigger than we had imagined," said Garcia.

source-http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-02-24T000917Z_01_N232779_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEXICO-MINE.xml&archived=False

sad, 65 dead