New Zealand Rescuers Forced to Wait to Enter Coal Mine
This article is for subscribers only.
New Zealand rescue workers have been forced to wait for tests to show the air is safe before entering a coal mine shaft where 29 men are missing in the country’s first mining disaster in more than 40 years.
“I’m not prepared to put people underground until we can prove it’s a safe environment,” police superintendent Gary Knowles said at a news conference in Greymouth on the west coast of the nation’s South Island, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the mine site. “We just need the right opportunity and the right time to get down there.”