Rescue workers said Wednesday there is little hope that nine missing miners have survived a coal mine explosion that killed at least five people in northern Mexico. The gas explosion that ripped through the primitive, vertical-shaft mine early Tuesday was so powerful it seriously injured a 15-year-old boy working on a conveyor belt outside the pit, AP reported. Labor Secretary Javier Lozano said that left little possibility that 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." A team of four rescuers who entered the mine quickly found the bodies of three miners in front of the rubble shaken loose by the blast. The mine employees later found two more bodies, and one rescuer who had been down the partially collapsed shaft said there was little chance anyone survived. -- SPA
