Miner rescue efforts intensify in Mexico 3:30
(CNN) --
Ten miners have been trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern Mexico for more than 24 hours as rescuers struggle to reach them.
The incident was reported Wednesday afternoon, when the miners came across an abandoned tunnel with water that flooded the mine, authorities said.
Rescuers managed to extract five people from the mine on Wednesday, and are now working to pump the water out of the flooded area, according to National Civil Protection Coordinator Laura Velázquez, who is overseeing the rescue operation.
At least 10 miners were trapped in a mine in Coahuila and five were rescued
"We have not slept, we are working day and night, without interruption," Velázquez said Thursday.
"We are strategically placing pumps in each of these wells so that we can extract the most water and have immediate access to the mines and rescue the miners as soon as possible," he said.
The relatives of a miner cry.
"They say the water is rising... I want my husband to come out well," the wife of a trapped miner, Erika Escobedo, told Reuters.
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Escobedo told the news agency that he had spent "all night watching the rescue efforts at the scene."
Coahuila and Zaragoza state governor Miguel Riquelme traveled Thursday to the Sabinas municipality where the mine is located.
"At the moment five water extraction pumps are working that add up to 150 horsepower and other submersible pumps are being installed, which are being sent by companies in the region and thus continue with the rescue work," he wrote on Twitter.
Mexican soldiers carry out rescue work at the coal mine.
Sabinas is no stranger to mining tragedies.
In 2006, an explosion at a local mine killed 65 people.
In 2011, 14 miners were trapped and confirmed dead after another mine exploded in Sabinas.
According to a statement issued by the Mexican Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, the mine in which the ten miners are currently trapped began operating in January, and "there is no history of complaints of any type of anomaly."
They will resume the tasks of recovering the bodies of the 63 miners buried in Coahuila 14 years ago
In his daily press conference this Thursday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that any investigation into the mine would come only after the rescue operation was concluded.
"The people in charge, the permits, the inspections, everything, all of that, we are leaving it for later. We already have the basic information," he said.
"But let's not talk about that now, let's seek to save the miners."
-- Daniela González-Román contributed to this report from New York and Karol Suárez from Mexico City. Previous reports by Gustavo Valdés and Marlon Sorto.
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