New Zealand miners said to be dead

New Zealand is mourning 29 men presumed dead in the nation’s worst mining tragedy in almost a century after a second blast at a South Island coal mine yesterday ended hope the trapped miners would be rescued.

There had been no contact with the men since the initial November 19 blast at the Pike River Coal mine. The second, more severe blast in the shaft at around 2.40 pm local time yesterday led New Zealand police to say the men are unlikely to have survived.

For five days, families and friends kept a vigil for the trapped men, ranging from a 17-year-old on his first day in the mine to a 62-year-old near retirement. Their plight had prompted hope of a recovery effort akin to the October rescue of 33 miners in Chile, brought to the surface after being trapped in a shaft below the Atacama desert for 70 days.