Clock ticking for Russian miners

Rescue teams include divers flown in from Moscow

Russian rescuers are frantically trying to free 46 miners trapped deep underground by flooding in a coal mine.

It is a race against time as water levels continue to rise in the shaft of the mine in the southern Rostov region.

The Zapadnaya mine in Novoshakhtinsk flooded on Thursday evening, cutting off power and stranding the miners 800 metres (2,600 feet) below.

Relatives huddled in the sleet outside the mine as officials said it could take two days to reach the trapped men.

The miners may have enough air to survive this long, depending on whether they managed to escape the initial flood and crawl to air pockets higher up.

All of the sudden, we were up to our necks in water - it knocked you off your feet Konstantin Doroshenko escaped miner

"There are hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of water there already," said Alexander Subbotin, a senior Russian safety regulator.

"We can only hope they have found safer spots in the upper layers."

Attempts are now being made to tunnel in from two neighbouring mines, but the rescuers' main priority is currently to stop the water level rising.

Sand and concrete batons are being poured into the shaft but rescuers are reluctant to use heavy machinery in case this unsettles the flood waters even more.

'Knocked off our feet'

The men were working at the coalface when water from an underground lake burst through a mine shaft and flooded the pit.

Mine director Vasily Avdeyev is reported to be among the trapped men.

Rescuers initially managed to bring up 15 miners but have reported no further progress in 24 hours.

There has been no contact with those still trapped since the accident happened.

"We barely got out of there," Igor Kulikov, one of the miners who managed to escape, told Russian television.

"All of a sudden, we were up to our necks in water," said another, Konstantin Doroshenko. "It knocked you off your feet."

Relatives rushed to the mine headquarters after news of the disaster broke to scan the list of names of those trapped underneath

Some sat quietly, their faces tense. Others shed tears.

Accidents are notoriously frequent in coal mines in Russia and its ex-Soviet neighbour Ukraine.

Apart from the natural hazards associated with the work, miners complain of deteriorating safety conditions.

A similar incident at Zapadnaya in February was blamed on a lack of maintenance work at the mine, which had led to the creation of the underground lake.

There were no casualties on that occasion.