EFFORTS TO RESCUE BURIED MINERS

[Anchor Lead]

One more tragic accident has occurred in Korea in recent days. It was a mine collapse in Bonghwa, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, one week ago. Efforts are underway to rescue two miners buried in the debris. Authorities have inserted a steel pipe in the ground to find out if the miners are alive, but the first attempt ended in a failure because the wrong location was drilled.

[Pkg]

The first attempt to insert a steel pipe in the collapsed mine to discover if the two miners buried underground survived has ended in a failure. Rescue workers say after 32 hours of drilling to insert a 76mm pipe in the ground, the location turned out to be wrong, and currently they are drilling a new hole in another location.

[Soundbite] (Bonghwa Fire Station official(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "The pipe was pushed 185 meters down instead of 170 meters, and hit a rock bed."

The other pipe, measuring 98mm in diameter, hasn't been inserted even halfway so far because of the slow pace of drilling. The rescue workers decided to deploy two more boring machines to speed up the process. If the pipes had been inserted properly, it would have been possible to find out if the buried miners are still alive by knocking on the pipes. Their families, who had hoped to send food and water through the pipes, were heartbroken to hear the news.

[Soundbite] (Family of buried miner) : "Is it right to use just one machine, while critical time was running out? More locations should have been drilled in case of failure."

Securing a passageway for rescuing the miners is also challenging. About 95 meters are left before reaching the area where the miners are located. Rescue workers plan to use an underground pass with rail tracks, but the tracks might have been cut or blocked by rocks during the mine collapse, meaning the rescue workers will have to check the situation in the mine to estimate the time needed to rescue the miners.