Rescuers recover fourth body from coal mine in Wales

Rescuers have found the body of a fourth miner in a flooded coal mine in south Wales in Britain's worst mining accident in years.

South Wales chief constable Peter Vaughan said it was a tragic outcome because police had held out hope of finding the last miner alive, Associated Press reports.

The sad discovery on Friday evening came as the Welsh government announced an inquiry into the disaster which occurred on Thursday while the men were working 295 feet underground.

Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan said lessons had to be learned from the deaths of the men at the Gleision Colliery, near Pontardawe, BBC reports.

Mrs Gillan said: "We must ensure we learn the lessons and find out what happened to these men."

Officials do not know what caused the accident at the Gleision Colliery near Swansea, once a major coal mining district, but where the industry all but disappeared since Britain's labor strife of the 1980s.

"This is the end that we all feared but hoped against hope wouldn't happen," said local lawmaker Peter Hain. "This has been a stab right through the heart of these local communities."

The four miners have been named as Phillip Hill, 45, Charles Bresnan, 62, David Powell, 50, and Garry Jenkins, 39.

Three other miners managed to escape the mine after the accident on Thursday morning. One was in the hospital listed as critically ill, while the two others escaped largely unharmed and were helping in the rescue operation.

Prime Minister David Cameron called the tragedy "a desperately, desperately sad situation".

AP reports:

Rescue teams had been working around the clock, pumping water out of the pit, excavating blockages and shoring up the tunnels. Divers trying to reach the men had been earlier forced to abandon their attempts.

"We thought in south Wales that the days of mining accidents were behind us, but we were wrong," said Wales First Minister Carwyn Jones. He extended his thoughts and sympathies to the family and praised rescue workers for their hard work and expertise.

"All that was humanly possible was done," he said, adding that people around the world are standing shoulder to shoulder with those affected by the tragedy.