Lassing - Rescuers yesterday considered whether to call off a 17-day search for survivors in a caved-in Austrian mine after failing to find 10 missing men in an air pocket where they were thought to be.
The rescue team had been clinging to hopes of finding at least some of the men in a so-called "dome" or hollow 130 metres down - and were trying to determine if anyone could possibly still be alive elsewhere in the mud-filled mine. "A medical evaluation will decide if there is a theoretical chance that anyone could still be alive somewhere in the pit," the rescue operation spokesman, Mr Alfred Zechling, said.