Water rising as rescuers look for Russian miners

NOVOSHAKHTINSK, Russia -- More water flooded into a coal mine Sunday as rescuers labored to reach 13 miners they believe could still be alive after being trapped thousands of feet underground for a third day.

On Saturday, 33 trapped, exhausted miners were brought to the surface. But emergency workers were unable to locate the position of 13 others in the Zapadnaya mine in southern Russia.

"As far as we know, they are in a dry place with a temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit," Viktor Kapkanshchikov, head of the Emergency Situations Ministry's rescue operation, said on Sunday.

But water was rising at such a rate that the mine could be completely flooded by midday Tuesday, he said.

The miners were working some 2,625 feet, or about a half-mile, down in the Zapadnaya mine Thursday when water from a subterranean lake leaked into a shaft above them, blocking their way to the surface, said Col. Viktor Shkareda, head of the regional emergency department.

A two-person rescue team that went down into the mine early Saturday reached the pitface where the men were trapped and located 33 of the miners, who eventually were brought to the surface on an elevator in a subsidiary shaft and taken to a local hospital. All were in satisfactory condition Sunday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Some escaped

There were 71 miners working in the Zapadnaya mine in the Rostov-on-Don region, about 600 miles south of Moscow, when the accident happened, Shkareda said.

He said 25 miners managed to escape to other pits and reach the surface after the leak filled several shafts.

Electricity in the mine was shut off, and the stranded miners had low batteries to light their lamps and no food, Shkareda said. But, he said, workers were able to provide ventilation to allow them to breathe during their ordeal.

Trucks dumped hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of earth and rock into the mine to plug the leak while rescuers carved tunnels from adjacent mines.

Accidents are common in the Russian coal industry, and miners stage frequent protests over wage delays and declining safety standards. According to the Independent Coal Miners' Union, 68 miners were killed on the job last year and 98 in 2001.