Washington - Rescuers on Saturday completed drilling a
fourth hole into a Utah mountain in an attempt to contact six miners
trapped underground since August 6, according to reports from the
scene.
Drilling work to locate the missing men has continued even as
digging to clear a collapsed mine shaft has been halted since another
cave-in on Thursday killed three rescuers and left six others
injured.
The latest hole, the fourth drilled up to 600 metres deep to reach
areas where the men could have been trapped, was completed Saturday
afternoon, broadcaster CBS News reported. Microphones and cameras
were expected to be used to explore the hole for signs of the missing
miners.
Rescuers have found no clear signs of life from the six workers
trapped in the initial accident inside the Crandall Canyon mine in
the Rocky Mountains near Huntington, Utah.
Two of the killed rescuers worked alongside the missing men, and
the third fatality was a member of the Mine Safety and Health
Administration, a regulatory agency within the US Labour Department.
It remains unclear if rescuers will be able to venture underground
again, or how the trapped miners could be freed if drilling efforts
were to produce any signs of life.
Three holes drilled previously into different parts of the vast
underground complex found some evidence of enough air and water to
sustain life for many days, but there was no sight or sound of the
miners.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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