Saturday (6), classified by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as “crucial” in the rescue of 10 miners trapped since Wednesday (3) due to the collapse and flooding of a coal mine in the northeast of the country, ended with low progress. .
According to official reports made available to the families, the water in the mine, which is several tens of meters deep, has receded by only 9.5 meters of the 34 meters that were flooded. However, the divers could not enter the mine.
“About 2.5 meters [diminuiu a água no sábado]”said Liliana Torres, the niece of one of the 10 workers, summarizing the report that the authorities only sent to the families on Saturday night.
“Today [sábado] It is a crucial day because, according to technicians, it will be possible to find out if there is a way for the divers to enter without risk,” the president wrote on Twitter.
Coahuila prosecutors, in turn, said they conducted interviews with the five miners who were injured and managed to get out of the mine after the collapse three of whom were hospitalized.
“Apparently they were driven away by a flood of water,” regional prosecutor Gerardo Márquez told reporters on Saturday.
Prosecutors, Márquez continued, asked the building’s owner and the concessionaire for information. The owner is a local businessman and has no history of other accidents, he added, without giving the company name.
A water leak from nearby mines “does not allow any further progress,” said regional labor minister Nazira Zogbi.
More than 300 workers are at the site of the tragedy and authorities have installed 19 water pumps capable of pumping up to 60 liters per second from inside the mine. An additional larger capacity pump was added Friday night.
Housed in makeshift camps, miners’ families, including children, showed renewed optimism this Saturday morning.
“In the other two days (before) we didn’t see any progress in the water, but now we see that a lot of water has spilled out at several sites that were excavated,” said Elva Hernández, motherinlaw of one of the workers.
“We hope they’re somewhere high up (in the mine), even though it’s a lot of water, but we trust in God…” added the 71yearold woman, accompanied by her grandson.
The mine is located about 1,130 km north of Mexico City in what is known as the Coahuila coal region.
After the collapse, five miners managed to get out and were taken to a hospital, according to authorities, two of whom were discharged.
The accident happened when workers during excavation found an adjacent area filled with water, which collapsed and flooded the mine.