Inside the Gleision Colliery drift mine

The alarm was raised at 9am on Thursday (15 September). Two men had escaped, and four remained trapped in the mine, 295ft (90m) under ground in the Gleision Colliery.

By around 1am today, enough water had been pumped out of the mine to allow two more divers to enter. Reports said divers could go no further than 20m, partly due to poor visibility caused by sediment.

All four miners have since been found dead. Emergency teams have said they are continuing to treat the situation as a rescue effort.

The mine itself is a simple affair. The coal seam is a mere 2 ft 6 inches high, and those who work in it must kneel or lie down.

As the graphic shows, images of the mine from 2001 look as if they are from a bygone era. In fact it is one of only three remaining small mines in Wales; there were 85 in 1992.

Channel 4 News Correspondent Alex Thomson, blogging from South Wales, has described it as “a world away from the modern super-pit ecology of the Selby coalfield.”

He writes: “A niche concern, dependent upon local spot prices for hard-won coal. A drift that has come and gone, worked and shut down as markets flux and change, owners come and go from the historic leviathon National Coal Board to a current private owner with head office registered to a small house down the road.”