All 29 men missing in a New Zealand coal mine have died after a powerful second blast tore through the pit, authorities said Wednesday, plunging the country into mourning. Police said there was now no chance of finding anyone alive, confirming the country's worst mining accident in nearly a century. Prime Minister John Key called it a "national tragedy" and said flags would fly at half-mast.
"Where this morning we held on to hope, we must now make way for sorrow," Key said. "Today, all New Zealanders grieve for these men. We are a nation in mourning." Police Superintendent Gary Knowles, who led stuttering rescue efforts, said he was at the mountainside Pike River mine when the sickening second explosion hit at 2:37 pm (0137 GMT), five days after Friday's initial blast.
"There was another explosion at the mine. It was extremely severe," he said. The news prompted anguish and anger among relatives, who had suffered an agonising wait for a rescue that never came as toxic gases stopped emergency teams from entering the mine in New Zealand's South Island.
In the grief-stricken town of Greymouth, home to many of the miners, builder Mike Curtis said locals were united in believing that rescuers should have gone in "straight away - all the old-timers knew that". The victims of the blasts ranged from a 17-year-old on his first shift to a 62-year-old veteran, and include two Australians, two Britons and a South African.
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