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Trapped miners: Rescue efforts on;
journalists manhandled

A second team of navy divers from Visakhapatnam has reached the site even as the dewatering process, with the help of 12 high power pumps, continued to reduce the water level, Coal India Ltd sources said.

The CIL officials, however, were non-committal about the fate of the miners, including manager A K Upadhyay and assistant manager P R Singh, but conceded that the chances of finding any survivor were 'less now'.

Meanwhile, tension ran high at the disaster site as agitated relatives, upset over news reports that some miners had been rescued, chased away media persons from the site.

At least three to four cameramen were manhandled by the mob.

The confusion over the fate of trapped miners began on Sunday afternoon when a CIL official said that navy divers had established contact with the miners who were also quoted as telling the divers: Hum sab theek hai (All of us are okay).

The development raised hopes of the anxious relatives who were waiting at the pithead since Friday noon.

Their joy was, however, short-lived as the Director General of Mine Safety R L Arora later in the evening dismissed the reports.

Arora said the divers had apparently searched the entire area in the pit but found no trace of the miners who had been trapped for over 72 hours following a gush of water from the adjacent Jairampur Colliery mine.

He said 12 pumps were draining 4000 gallons of water per minute from the mine and the water level inside has fallen.

EARLIER REPORT
Fate of trapped miners remains unknown

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