Deaths in Colombia mine explosion

Hundreds of miners are killed or injured every year in Colombia [EPA] At least 16 Colombian miners have been killed and dozens more are missing after an explosion in a coal mine in the northwest of the country, officials say. Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian president, said initial indications were that an accumulation of methane gas caused the blast in the San Fernando mine in the province of Antioquia. An estimated 70 to 80 workers were in the mine at the moment of the explosion late on Wednesday. Luz Amanda Pulido, director of disaster prevention, said the hope of finding survivors was "not much, almost nothing". The explosion collapsed part of an access tunnel that is more than a mile long and drops to a depth of 500 feet, John Rendon the provincial disaster co-ordinator, said. Two injured miners managed to escape from the mine, Rendon said. "It's very sad news,'' Uribe said in a statement, saying that the predicament of the trapped miners is "a very difficult fate.". Alberto Mejia, an army commander, said a 22-man army special forces rescue team was being dispatched to the mine to help. At least 100 rescue workers were at the scene, Beatriz Delgado from the Red Cross, said. Hundreds are killed or injured every year while prospecting for gold or coal in often makeshift mines in Colombia, the world's fifth largest coal exporter. Last year a methane gas explosion, also in Antioquia province, killed eight workers and in 2007, 31 miners were killed in an explosion in Norte de Santander in one of the worst disasters of its kind in a decade.