 Initial news reports stated that between 50 and 60 men were within the mountain and had been buried with no hope of survival . In reality , there were 20 miners working the night shift at the time of the disaster . Three had been outside the mine and were killed by the slide . The remaining 17 were underground . They discovered that the entrance was blocked and water from the river , which had been <unk> by the slide , was coming in via a secondary tunnel . They unsuccessfully tried to dig their way through the blocked entrance before one miner suggested he knew of a seam of coal that reached the surface . Working a narrow tunnel in pairs and <unk> , they dug through the coal for hours as the air around them became increasingly toxic . Only three men still had enough energy to continue digging when they broke through to the surface late in the afternoon . The opening was too dangerous to escape from due to falling rocks from above . Encouraged by their success , the miners cut a new shaft that broke through under an <unk> of rock that protected them from falling debris . Thirteen hours after they were buried , all 17 men emerged from the mountain . 
