U.S. media were invited Wednesday to the rescue site of the collapsed coal mine in Utah where six miners have been trapped underground for two days, as President George Bush expressed his concern over the disaster for the first time.
Representatives of news organizations would be transported to the rescue site, as officials at the Genwal mine, under overwhelming public concern, felt that they should let reporters to see how the rescue is underway first-hand, local media reports said.
Meanwhile, President Bush in Washington Wednesday called Utah Governor Jon Huntsman to express his concern for the six trapped miners, according to White House press secretary Tony Snow.
Bush asked Huntsman to "continue to offer support from the federal government and to tell him that he was keeping the miners in his thoughts and prayers."
The federal government has sent field supervisors and inspectors from the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration to the mine site, and the U.S. Air Force is also reportedly providing transportation help for the rescue effort.
According to a website report by the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, mine owner Robert Murray said rescuers resumed efforts Wednesday morning to reach the six miners now in their third day trapped under over 500 meters of coal and rock in central Utah.
It was initially reported that a 4.0 magnitude earthquake caused the mine collapse on Monday, but later reports claimed that the collapse itself may have shaken the seismograph and been registered as an earthquake.
Source: Xinhua
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