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Another Mining Accident, This Time in Mexico

A gas explosion Sunday at a coal mine in northern Mexico trapped 66 miners below ground and left 12 hospitalized with burns and broken bones, officials said. The explosion occurred before dawn at the mine near the town of Sabinas, 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass on the Mexico-U.S. border. A state emergency official said it was not known how long it would take to reach the trapped miners.

The mine accident is one in a string of many which have been reported in the news in North America in recent months.An attempted rescue in the U.S. state of West Virginia of several trapped miners some weeks back ended with only one surviving miner being recovered.

The trapped miners had a limited supply of oxygen and their lives were in extreme danger, said Ruben Escudero Chavez, director of the Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, the private company that owns the pit. It was not immediately clear whether the mine had airtight chambers, such as those that saved 72 potash miners trapped last month after fire broke out in a Canadian mine.