MEXICO - Bodies of five miners found Nine others feared dead

SAN JUAN DE SABINAS (AP):

Mexican officials who had hoped to call in Chilean experts to help rescue 14 miners trapped in a coal mine instead have had to break the tragic news to relatives that five bodies have already been found and there is little hope the nine others have survived.

The gas explosion that ripped through the primitive, vertical-shaft mine on Tuesday was so powerful it seriously injured a 15-year-old boy working on a conveyor belt outside the pit. Labour Secretary Javier Lozano said that left little hope those inside could have withstood the force of the blast.

"The outlook is very bad," Lozano said at the scene. "The truth is that it does not allow us to hold out much hope."