At least 11 miners are trapped in a flooded coal mine with a major rescue operation under way in Mexico as specialist teams using trained dogs try to reach them.
Near to 100 soldiers are supporting the specialist rescue teams in their bid to get to the miners after they tapped into a flooded area leading to a wall to collapse, authorities have said.
The incident has taken place at a mine in Coahuila, in northern Mexico, and television footage shows anxious family members outside desperate for information.
So far four miners have been taken from the mine but there remain officially 11 people inside and there are also reports of more.
Those rescued have suffered minor injuries said Coahuila government secretary Fernando de las Fuentes, and they have been taken to Hospital General de Zona number 24 in Nueva Rosita.
"I hope we find them safe," Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said immediately after the incident at around 1.35pm local time and the number of trapped people has been gradually revised up to 11 people.
Some 92 soldiers were working at the scene, as well as specialists and rescue dogs, the president said.
The Labour Ministry said it had not previously received any complaints about safety at the mine, which began operations in January.
It stated: “State and federal authorities have been told that today at around 1.35pm there was an accident at a coal mine in the areas known as Conchas, close to the town of Agujita, in the Sabinas municipality of Coahuila, where workers were in the mine.
"The accident occurred when workers who were excavating the site hit an area that was full of water and the collapse caused flooding with some of the miners trapped.
"This mine started operations in January this year and up until now there had not been any previous reports of incidents or anomalies. In the zone there are personnel from the Sedena, Civil Protection, state, municipal and federal authorities who are coordinating the rescue."
Meanwhile, Cristina Auerbach of the NGO The Peace Brigades International has reportedly said that there could be 12 miners still trapped and blamed the poor conditions in the mine for the disaster.
