9 May 2011

Bodies pulled from unlicensed Mexican mine

4:30 pm on 9 May 2011

The Mexican government says the bodies of all 14 miners trapped in a coalmine after a gas explosion last week have been recovered.

Labour minister Javier Lozano says the last of the victims was recovered on Sunday morning.

The methane blast on Tuesday was so powerful it was reported to have seriously injured a teenager working outside the mine.

The BBC reports that the small mine, in Coahuila state, close to the border with the United States, had been operating for less than a month without a licence.

It's near the site of one of the country's worst mining disasters, in San Juan de Sabinas, where 65 men died in 2006.

In a separate incident, officials say three people apparently searching for semi-precious stones died after a landslide hit an opal mine in the western state of Jalisco.