Nine Miners Trapped in Water-filled Shaft in US

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 26, 2002

Nine Miners Trapped in Water-filled Shaft in US

Rescuers raced against time Thursday to save nine coal miners trapped in a shaft filling up with water in eastern United States.

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Rescuers raced against time Thursday to save nine coal miners trapped in a shaft filling up with water in eastern United States.

A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said there were good signs that the miners were safe hours after they were trapped about 70 meters underground at a mine 88 kilometers southeast of Pittsburgh.

Rescuers rushed in a large drilling rig able to bore a 91-centimeter hole early Thursday afternoon, local reports said. Theyhad drilled a 15-centimeter-wide air hole.

Rescue workers tapped and heard tapping back from underground. Seismic device also indicated noises in the area where the miners were believed to be trapped.

"It is a race against time because the water is still filling,"Betsy Mallison, the spokeswoman, said. "We don't want to raise expectations at this time, but it's a good sign."

The miners were about 2.5 kilometers from the entrance when they apparently breached the wall of an abandoned and flooded mineshortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday (0200 GMT Thursday). Up to 270 million liters of water was believed to have rushed into the mine.

The miners apparently dashed into an air pocket about 60 metersfrom where they hit the abandoned mine, David Sbaffoni from the state Bureau of Deep Mine Safety, was quoted as saying.

Pennsylvania requires 60 meters of solid rock be maintained between mines, and officials said the miners believed they had about 90 meters away from the abandoned mine.

David Hess, secretary of the state Environmental Department, told the Cable News Network that the mine maps miners were using were apparently wrong.

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