Officials in Utah have declared it too dangerous to resume a search for six men missing in a mine after a tunnel collapsed twelve days ago.
"We have suspended indefinitely the underground portion of this rescue effort," Richard Stickler, head of the US government's Mine Safety and Health Administration, told reporters.
Crews in Utah were forced to suspend their desperate underground search for six trapped coal miners yesterday after a cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured six.
Rescuers will continue to drill bore holes down through the top of the mountain to find the miners, who have not been heard from since a collapse on August 6 and are thought to be located 1,800 feet underground.
If the miners were found, a larger hole would be drilled in from the surface in a long, slow effort, he said.
One of those killed and one seriously injured in Thursday evening's collapse were federal employees, Stickler said. The collapse raised fears that tunnelling to try to find the men trapped in the central Utah mine was too dangerous to continue without further casualties.
"Yesterday we went from a tragedy to a catastrophe," Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said outside the Crandall Canyon Mine, south of Salt Lake City, as he called for new efforts to make mining safer in his state and the country.
"We would envision doing an investigation in conjunction," with the Mine Safety and Health Administration, he said.
Co-owner Robert Murray, who has been the public face of the mine operating company, did not appear before the media yesterday. Stickler and other officials looked strained as they faced challenging questions from reporters about safety in the rescue effort.