Rescuers searched Thursday for 53 miners who were feared dead after an explosion occurred inside a coal mine in eastern India, an official said. The miners were trapped more than 650 feet underground, and a pocket of natural methane gas had begun leaking just after the blast, said Partho Bhattacharya, chairman of the state-owned Bharat Coking Coal Ltd., which owns the mine. Although rescue teams had entered the mine and succeeded in reopening air vents, he said the chances the miners would survive was bleak. The explosion occurred Wednesday night at the mine, located about 95 miles northeast of Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state, said local town administrator Beela Rajesh. Three people managed to escape and were hospitalized with burn injuries, indicating there could be a fire inside the mine, officials were quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
