SHILLONG, India - Fifteen coal miners are feared dead after being trapped in a flooded mine in India's remote northeast, police say.
Rescue teams were working to pump water out of the mine but Meghalaya state Director General of Police, N Ramachandran, said there was little hope of any of the men having survived the accident, which occurred last Friday.
"We have requisitioned a National Disaster Response Force team to rescue the trapped miners but hope for the survival of the miners is very bleak," he said.
The miners were trapped when water gushed into a shaft after they accidentally punched a hole in the wall of an adjacent mine in Rongsa Awe village, 370 kilometres from state capital Shillong, he said.
"Altogether, there were (in) total 30 miners working in the coal pit," Ramachandran told AFP in Shillong.
"Fifteen managed to come out while 15 others got trapped inside when thousands of gallons of water gushed in," he said.