'Dark, wet, grim': Lives in balance as rescue stalls

Hundreds of relief personnel from India's top agencies stared helplessly into a dark and damp abyss in a remote corner of Assam on Thursday as frantic efforts to pump out water from a flooded mine appeared stalled even as the lives of about a dozen workers hung in the balance.

- Utpal Parashar and Prawesh Lama

UMRANGSO/NEW DELHI:

A multi-agency effort to rescue workers trapped inside an illegal mine in Assam's Dima Hasao district was suspended after four fruitless days as the focus shifted on taking out the columns of water that had flooded the 300-feet deep pit and marooned between nine and 15 unsuspecting miners.

The desolate silence was only punctured by the steady hum of two pumps that worked through the day to de-water the quarry and reach the workers trapped in a web of underground tunnels, known colloquially as outlawed rat hole mines.

The operation was suspended after authorities appeared unable to reduce the estimated 100 feet of water in the mine, suggesting that an underground aquifer was constantly inundating the main pit and the tunnels that branched out.