MANILA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Rescuers pulled out two dead bodies from a flooded gold mine in the northern Philippines on Thursday and hopes are fading of finding alive one remaining person who has been trapped underground for more than 10 days, officials said. An estimated 16 people were trapped in the mine in northern Benguet province after a portion collapsed in heavy rain brought by a typhoon on Sept. 22. Nine miners have been found alive and six bodies recovered from the pit. "We're now focusing all our efforts to find the last miner inside the tunnel," George Baywong, an official from the state's mines and geosciences bureau, told reporters. "We want to get everyone out, dead or alive." Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a navy spokesman, said the search and rescue operations could be called off late on Thursday because hopes were fading of finding the remaining miner alive. "Based on reports we're getting from the ground, there's very little chance of finding him alive," Arevalo said. Late on Wednesday, rescuers found three men, who said they chewed on their clothes to survive for more than a week underground. Six men were found earlier this week. Rescue teams, including divers from the Philippine Navy, took almost a week to clear the collapsed portion of the gold mine and reach the victims. Heavy rain and a lack of oxygen tanks had hampered the rescue operation and last week officials had said there was virtually no hope of finding any of the miners alive. The mine has been abandoned by the mining company that used to operate it, but many local people still enter it to scavenge for ore. Landslides and flash floods are common across the Philippine archipelago during the monsoon months between May and October. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex Richardson)
Residents paddle on a flooded street in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region October 1, 2008. Floods triggered by torrential rain have killed 17 people and six others are missing in southern ...
