New Zealand Mine: “No Survivors” After Second Blast

Officials had become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of pulling the men alive from a network of tunnels some 1.5miles (2km) deep in the side of a mountain.

Mr Whittal said the second explosion was what the rescuers had always feared.

Relatives of some of the miners had expressed that rescuers had not immediately entered the mine after the first blast.

But Mr Whittal defended the decision to keep rescue workers out of the mine. “It’s dangerous and it’s hazardous and the rescue teams would be putting their lives gravely at risk,” he said.

“While we were there and making that assessment, exactly what we said could happen, happened.”

Pike River is not far from the Strongman Mine, where an underground explosion killed 19 men in January 1967.

New Zealand’s worst mining disaster was a gas explosion in the same Pike River coal seam in 1896, which left 65 miners dead.

Two robots had been sent into tunnels of the mine and a third was on its way in the hope of gaining a clearer pictures of the conditions underground.

All 29 miners trapped in a coal mine in New Zealand are believed to be dead after a second explosion.

Police superintendent Gary Knowles said the ignition of gases in Pike River coal mine meant a rescue was very unlikely.

“It is our belief that no-one has survived and everyone will have perished,” he told reporters.

There had been no contact with the men – 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African – since the first explosion on Friday.

The Britons were Peter Roger, 40, and Malcolm Campbell, 25, both originally from Scotland.

Supt Knowles said the second blast occurred at about 1437 local time (0137 GMT) on Wednesday. “It was extremely severe,” he added. “I’ve had to break the news to the families and they’re extremely distraught.”

The chief executive of the South Island mine, Peter Whittal, said his company would make every effort to retrieve the bodies of the men.

“We want our boys back and we want to get them out,” he told reporters.

Family members wept, shouted and fell to the floor after hearing the news, Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn said.

“It’s unbelievable. This is the west coast’s darkest hour,” Mr Kokshoorn said. “It doesn’t get worse than this.”

Prime Minister John Key called the disaster at Pike River “a national tragedy”.

He said: “To lose this many brothers at once strikes an agonising blow. We are a nation in mourning.”

Mr Key said an inquiry would investigate how and why the accident had happened.

‘Dangerous and hazardous’

It was not immediately clear what triggered the second blast.

Explosive and poisonous gases had been present in the mine since the initial explosion and had prevented rescuers from entering the mine to search for the missing men, who included a 17-year-old on his first shift.