By PAUL FOY
Associated Press

HUNTINGTON, Utah - Six miners were trapped in a coal mine Monday by a cave-in so powerful that authorities initially thought it was small earthquake.

Hours after the cave-in, searchers had been unable to contact the miners and could not be sure whether they were dead or alive. If they survived, a mine executive said, they could have enough air and water to last several days.

“We’re going to get them,” said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a contractor that works at the mine. “There is nothing on my mind right now except getting those miners out.”

Murray believes the miners have plenty of air because oxygen naturally leaks into the mine. The mine also is stocked with drinking water.

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