Two Scots among 29 miners presumed dead after second blast in New Zealand mine

ALL 29 miners trapped in a New Zealand mine after an explosion - including two Scots - were presumed dead today after a second blast occurred, rescuers said.

• The entrance to the Pike River Coal mine. Picture: Getty

Pete Rodger, 40, from Perthshire, and Malcolm Campbell, 25, from St Andrews, Fife, were among the men missing following Friday's initial blast at Pike River mine in Atarau on South Island.

The workers could not have survived the "horrific" second explosion and rescue teams were "now in recovery mode", police said.

Superintendent Gary Knowles said: "Today there was another massive explosion underground and based on that explosion no-one would have survived. We are now in recovery mode."

He added: "The blast was horrific - just as severe as the first blast.

"Based on the expert advice I have been given it's our belief there would have been no survivors.

"I had to break the news to the families and they were extremely distraught."

Family members started shouting and fell to the floor after they were told, one witness said.

TV footage at the scene showed relatives in tears and hugging each other.

• Pete Rodger (left) and Malcolm Campbell

Rescue teams had been unable to go into the mine after Friday's first blast because of high levels of toxic gases.

Pike River mine chief executive Peter Whittall said the rescue teams were not doing anything that could have triggered the second blast.

"It was a natural eventuation, it could have happened on the second day, it could have happened on the third day," he said.

Rescuers had become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of finding the men alive in the network of tunnels one and a half miles deep.

A drilling team broke through yesterday to the section of mine where the men were working but was greeted by a blast of potentially deadly gases.

Hot air and gas rushed the hole when the chamber roof was punctured and Mr Whittall said initial tests showed it was "extremely high in carbon monoxide, very high in methane and fairly low in oxygen".

Explosive methane is believed to have caused Friday's blast.

Security footage of that explosion showed a wall of white dust surging from the mine entrance and small stones rolling past for about 50 seconds as the force of the blast ripped out of the mine.

The dust was blown across a valley and the blast wave shot up a ventilation shaft, tearing off surface vents hundreds of feet above.

New Zealand's prime minister John Key yesterday warned the nation to prepare for the worst as frustration grew among some relatives of the missing.