Twelve people trapped deep underground at Colorado mine are rescued after 6 hours

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By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) -Twelve people were trapped 1,000 feet (300 meters) underground in a former Colorado gold mine for about six hours on Thursday before a malfunctioning elevator was repaired, enabling them to safely return to the surface, officials said.

The elevator was carrying a separate group of tourists when it malfunctioned about halfway down the mine shaft at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, a tourist attraction in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

One person died and four others suffered minor injuries as a result of the malfunction, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell told reporters without explaining the cause of death.

The elevator was stuck briefly until it was able to return to the surface with 11 people aboard, he said.

Meanwhile, 11 other tourists and one tour guide remained stuck further below the surface until the elevator was repaired. When that was done six hours later, they were brought back four at a time.

“They’re all in good spirits. We fed them pizza. That’s what they wanted,” Mikesell said.

The repair avoided the need for a rescue plan that would have involved dropping a harness down the mine shaft with a rope and bringing people up one at a time.

The Colorado Springs Fire Department said it was on hand with crews that are specially trained for such a rescue.

Emergency responders had radio communication with the people while they were trapped, and they had water, blankets and chairs to keep them comfortable.

But they were not told someone in the other tour group had died in order to avoid anxiety, Mikesell said.

Cripple Creek is about 45 miles (72 km) from Colorado Springs, through mountain roads near the Pikes Peak summit in the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.

A family business has operated tours at the Mollie Kathleen mine for more than 50 years, with only one previous safety incident in which people were trapped in the elevator in 1986, Mikesell said.

The one-hour tours show how gold was mined at the site since it was discovered there in 1891 by a woman named Mollie Kathleen Gortner, according to the tour’s website. Temperatures underground are typically around 50 Fahrenheit (10 Celsius).

Tours date to the early days of the mine but became its main function after mining was discontinued in 1961, the site says. The last tour of the season had been scheduled for Sunday.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edwina Gibbs)