RESCUERS were racing against time today to free 10 Mexican miners trapped underground for more than three days following a collapse. 

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador visited the scene on Saturday where more than 300 soldiers and six divers from the Mexican special forces had joined the emergency response. 

“Time is against us,” he told families holding a vigil at the mine in the hope that those who remained underground had found a pocket of air. 

The operation was continuing when the Morning Star went to press. 

The coalmine opened in January and the Mexican Labour Ministry said it had no “record of complaints for any type of abnormality.”

But Mexican Mining Union general secretary Napoleon Gomez Urrutia called for an inquiry, saying that a number of the mine owners held positions in the state government. 

“If it is proven that one of the owners of the concession is the undersecretary of labour in the state government, it is something that still requires further investigation,” he said. 

The union leader alleged that the local authorities “do not comply with their obligation to inspect or supervise these coalminers-entrepreneurs.”

Mr Urrutia added the union is being prevented from speaking to mineworkers, with owners closing down the mines when union representatives make an approach.

He demanded a comprehensive reform of Mexico’s Mining Law to guarantee safe and adequate conditions for workers.