Mexico races against time to rescue workers from flooded coal mine

Mexican authorities have been trying to rescue a group of miners trapped in a coal mine in the state of Coahuila after it collapsed, Coahuila State Secretary Fernando Donato de Las Fuentes said in an interview on national television.

Donato said late on Wednesday as many as 11 miners were trapped.

The mine is located in the Sabinas municipality, and local media showed footage of family members asking for information about the miners outside the premises.

The coal mine started operations in January and has not received any complaints, the Labor Ministry said in a statement.

READ MORE: Mexico coal mine collapse leaves at least one dead, six missing

Nearly 100 soldiers at site

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said earlier on Twitter that nine miners were "likely" trapped in the mine.

"I hope we find them safe," Lopez Obrador said, adding that the collapse of the mine had caused a flood inside.

One miner had managed to get out, Coahuila Governor Miguel Riquelme said.

Some 92 soldiers arrived at the scene, as well as specialists and rescue dogs, the president said.

Many of Coahuila's small-scale mines are astonishingly primitive; rough logs are used to shore up tunnels and miners descend atop crude coal buckets on cables pulled by car engines.

Coal mines in the area have been hit by deadly accidents in the past.

An accident on February 19, 2006, in the Pasta de Conchos mine in the area, killed 65 miners, but only two bodies were recovered.

Mexican authorities called off that search and closed the mine five days after the accident, arguing that it was unsafe due to toxic gas.