Concerns are growing for the fate of 27 miners after an explosion ripped through one of New Zealand’s largest coal mines early this morning.
Five workers, who were slightly injured, stumbled to the surface hours later, but 27 remain unaccounted for, officials said.
Police said that shortly before the blast the electricity went out in the mine, which may have caused ventilation problems.
That may have contributed to a build-up of gas underground. Rescue teams were waiting for word that the mine was safe to enter.
The explosion was powerful enough to blow one driver off his machine deep in a tunnel, and a mine safety expert said gas was a possible cause of the blast, although police spokeswoman Barbara Dunn and the mine’s operator stressed it was too early to say why it occurred.
It was not immediately clear if all of those underground were together or in separate groups.
Television footage showed blackened and singed trees and light smoke billowing from the top of a mountain where a 110m ventilation shaft emerges. A nearby hut was blown down, suggesting a powerful blast had shot up the shaft from deep in the mine.
Rescue teams and emergency workers rushed by helicopter and by road to the mine, located in remote and rugged mountains near the town of Atarau on New Zealand’s South Island.
Local TV reported they were taking air samples in the ventilation shaft to check whether there was a build-up of poisonous or explosive gas and if it was safe to go in.
“They’re itching to get in there and start looking for other people and a bit frustrated at having to stand and wait,” Ms Dunn said. “There is concern that ventilation inside the mine shaft may be compromised by the power outage.”
The condition of the missing miners was not clear, but the prospect that they could be alive but trapped recalls the dramatic saga of 33 Chilean mine workers who spent 69 days half a mile deep in a collapsed gold and copper mine. They were rescued last month in an event that captivated the world.
Pike River chairman John Dow said each miner carried 30 minutes of oxygen supply - enough to reach oxygen stores in the mine that he said would allow them to survive for “several days”.
The coal seam at the New Zealand mine is reached through a 2km horizontal tunnel that bores into the mountain toward the seam, which lies about 200m beneath the surface.
Peter Whittall, chief executive of mine operator Pike River Coal Ltd, said 27 people were missing - 15 miners employed by the company and 12 local contractors. Mr Whittall said five workers had walked out of the mine two to three hours after the blast: a pair that included the machine operator who was blown off his vehicle in the access tunnel. Three more came out later. One of the men had been able to make a call on his mobile phone before reaching the surface, he said.
New Zealand prime minister John Key said the situation at the mine had the potential to be very serious. “The government has told the company it will provide any support that is required. It is an Australian company that owns the mine and the Australian government has also contacted us offering their support (and) assistance,” he told reporters.
The company is around 30 per cent owned by NZ Oil and Gas Ltd with two Indian companies - Gujarat NRE and Saurashtra Fuels - as substantial minority shareholders.
The last major coal mining disaster in New Zealand was in 1967 when 19 miners were killed in an explosion at a coal mine in the same part of the country, a major coal-producing region.
Agencies