Ten miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern Mexico

• Rescuers have been battling for over 24 hours to reach ten miners trapped in a flooded coal mine.
• Six special forces divers joined the rescue efforts early Thursday morning.
• Governor of Coahuila and Zaragoza states visited Sabinas, where the mine is located.

Rescuers have been battling for over 24 hours to reach ten miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern Mexico.

Authorities said the incident happened Wednesday afternoon when the miners came across an abandoned tunnel with water that flooded the mine.

Rescuers extracted five people from the mine on Wednesday and are now working to pump water out of the flooded area, according to Laura Velazquez, the National Coordinator of Civil Protection in charge of the rescue operation.

“We have not slept, we are working day and night, uninterrupted,”  Velazquez said on Thursday.

“We are strategically putting pumps in each of these wells to be able to extract the greatest amount of water and have immediate access to the mines and rescue the miners as soon as possible,”
she explained.

Six special forces divers joined the rescue efforts early Thursday morning, according to General Agustin Radilla. However, there has been no update on their findings as of yet.

“They say the water is rising..I want my husband to come out all right,” “Erika Escobedo, the wife of one of the trapped miners, told Reuters.

She told the news agency that she had been “watching rescue efforts at the site all night.”

Governor Miguel Riquelme of Coahuila and Zaragoza states visited Sabinas, where the mine is located, on Thursday.

“Five water extraction pumps totaling 150 horsepower are currently working and other submersible pumps are being installed, which are being sent by companies in the region and thus continue with the rescue efforts,”  he tweeted.

Sabinas has seen her fair share of mining disasters. An explosion in a nearby mine killed 65 people in 2006. Following another mine blast in Sabinas in 2011, 14 miners were trapped and confirmed dead.

According to a statement issued by Mexico’s Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare, the mine where the ten are currently trapped opened in January and  “does not have a history of complaints for any type of anomaly.”

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stated in his daily press briefing on Thursday that any investigation into the mine would take place only after the rescue operation was completed.

“Those responsible, the permits, the inspections, everything, all of that, we are leaving until after. We already have the basic information,” He stated.

“But let’s not talk about that now, let’s look to save the miners.”

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