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5 Dead, 9 Still Missing in Mexico Coal Mine Explosion

   VOA News  May 04, 2011
   Rescue workers and miners stand at a mine where an explosion occurred
   in San Juan Sabinas, in the Mexican State of Coahuila, May 4, 2011

Photo: Reuters

   Rescue workers and miners stand at a mine where an explosion occurred
   in San Juan Sabinas, in the Mexican State of Coahuila, May 4, 2011

   Authorities in Mexico say five miners are dead following Tuesday's
   explosion at a coal mine in the northern part of the country and that
   there is little hope of finding nine others alive.
   The assessment came Wednesday, hours after the bodies were pulled from
   the pit in the state of Coahuila. Authorities say a methane gas buildup
   caused the explosion, which was powerful enough to severely injure a
   teenage boy working outside the facility.
   Mexican President Felipe Calderon has ordered the attorney general's
   office to open an investigation into the blast.
   The mine had been in operation since last month. Local news reports
   have said the facility belongs to the mining company BINSA.
   In 2006, an explosion at another mine in the state left 65 miners dead.
   The bodies of most of the victims in that accident were never
   recovered.

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