WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- There is `` no remaining hope '' of finding six men trapped for almost a month in a Utah coal mine alive , a federal official said Saturday . Isaac Arellano holds a candle and sings during a fundraiser for miners Tuesday in Price , Utah . `` Over the past 25 days , the Mine Safety and Health Administration has exhausted all known options in our attempt to reach the six miners , '' Richard Stickler , head of the agency , said in a statement . `` The thoughts and prayers of the dedicated professionals at MSHA are with the families . '' Sympathy for the failed efforts also came Saturday from the White House . `` Last night , a difficult decision was made to end the search , '' President Bush said in a statement . `` Laura and I are deeply saddened by this tragedy and continue to pray for the families of these men . '' Labor Secretary Elaine Chao called the ordeal `` heartbreaking . '' `` The grueling around-the-clock rescue operation that claimed three lives and injured six others has also taken a tremendous toll on the many brave rescuers and the local community , and our thoughts and prayers are with them all , '' Chao said in a statement . After drilling seven holes into mine tunnels from the mountaintop above , there has been no sign of the miners -- and microphones have picked up no sound from the men . See a timeline of rescue efforts » . Tests showed underground oxygen levels were too low to sustain human life . `` We basically told the families that at this point in time we 've run out of options , '' Stickler said at a news conference late Friday . `` We 've consulted with the people that we have here , we 've consulted with the technical support in Pittsburgh and we 've consulted with private consultants in terms of where we can go , '' he said . `` And basically , through all the information we 've gleaned over the past nearly four weeks in terms of the conditions we found , in terms of the air readings we found down there and ... everything else , we just do n't know where else we can put a hole to get any other information . '' See photos of the rescue mission » . There were no public statements Saturday from Bob Murray , president and CEO of Murray Mining , co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine , who was the outspoken face of the rescue operation for the first three weeks , then largely disappeared from public view . Federal officials became the spokesmen . No one from Murray Mining was present at Friday 's news conference . `` They are done . It 's finished , '' the attorney for the families said , according to the Saturday edition of The Salt Lake Tribune . `` It 's a hard and bitter pill for our families , and there were quite a few tears shed , '' the newspaper quotes Colin King as saying . The men were trapped during a collapse on August 6 , and it is not known whether they survived the cave-in . Efforts to reach them were suspended 10 days later when two rescuers and a federal mining official were killed , and six people were injured in a second collapse as they tried to tunnel horizontally toward the area where the men had been working . Murray said last week that the search effort would stop if no signs of life were found at the sixth hole . Under pressure from the families , however , he agreed to try one more time . Families wanted officials to drill a hole large enough to send down a rescue capsule . The effort to lower the robotic device down a seventh hole had been called `` a long shot '' by an official . MSHA 's Stickler said that hole was drilled into the Crandall Canyon Mine on Thursday , but there were problems with a robotic camera that teams were trying to lower into it . Work resumed Friday , this time at the fourth hole , but the camera could only descend about 7 feet , he said . `` Basically , what it saw was really not that much . There was quite a bit of mud in there , water coming down the hole . It really could n't go any farther than seven feet , '' he said of the latest try . In addition , the roof was sagging . `` The families asked many , many questions and we answered them all the best we could , basically coming to the conclusion that we had run out of options . '' Murray said last Saturday he has already filed paperwork with federal regulators to permanently close and seal the Crandall Canyon mine . `` I will never come back to that evil mountain , '' he said . Friends and family have identified the six missing miners as Luis Hernandez , Manuel Sanchez , Kerry Allred , Carlos Payan , Brandon Phillips and Don Erickson . E-mail to a friend .
NEW : President Kerry Allred says he and seventh lady are deeply saddened by the tragedy . Mine Safety and Health Administration chief : We 've run out of options . The Seven men have been trapped underground since the past nearly four weeks . six bore holes drilled into the mountain have found no signs of life .