part 2

The 29 miners, between the ages of 17 and 62, were believed to have been spread throughout the Pike River mine, with perhaps half trapped in one area, Pike River Coal CEO Peter Whittall has said.

"The miners would have become unconscious as a result of acute hypoxic-hypoxia almost immediately," Supt. Gary Knowles, Tasman district police commander, said Thursday. "They would have remained unconscious until death ... three to five minutes later."