Mine rescue turns to tragedy in US

"The initial report from the rescue teams from the command center indicated multiple survivors, but that information proved to be a miscommunication," International Coal Group (ICG) president and chief executive Ben Hatfield told reporters.

"The only confirmed survivor is Randall McCloy, who has now been rushed to a local hospital in serious condition. The 11 remaining miners in the barricade structure were determined by the medical technicians on the rescue team to have already deceased," Hatfield said.

Late Tuesday rescue teams recovered the body of a thirteenth miner, who was not a member of the work team that was found later in the tunnel.

They were trapped early Monday by an explosion that ripped through the Sago mine as they were resuming work following the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Shortly before midnight (0500 GMT Wednesday), bells pealed and cheers were heard at the Sago Baptist Church, as West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin announced: "They told us they have 12 alive."

An ambulance was seen leaving the mine with an injured miner on board, whom Hatfield later identified as the sole survivor of the tragedy. Local hospital officials said the 26-year-old miner was in critical condition and would be transferred to a larger medical center at Morgantown.

At around 3:00 am, a different scene evolved at the church as people began leaving in a state of shock and in tears after mining officials inside had confirmed the grim news that only one of the miners had survived.

Asked how such a serious mistake was made, Hatfield said ICG had taken every precaution to make sure its information was correct but that "bad information" from the rescue team was inadvertently relayed to the outside.

"What happened is that through stray cell phone conversations it appears that this miscommunication from the rescue team underground to the command center was picked up by various people that simply overheard the conversations," Hatfield said.

"ICG never made any release about all 12 of the miners being alive and well. We simply couldn't confirm that at that point. But that information spread like wildfire because it had come from the command center, but it was a bad information," he added.

"This is certainly not the outcome that we had hoped for and prayed for. So again our hearts and prayers go out to the families," Hatfield said.

Governor Manchin later apologized for relaying the mistaken information about the survivors.