Browse content similar to 16/09/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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As the rescuers discover the men's bodies one by one it's been a day | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
of agony for the families. Everybody's rallying around but | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
everybody's traumatised because they've not known this horror now | :00:41. | :00:48. | |
for a generation or more and it's terrible it's been visited upon us. | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
The conditions inside the mine, one of the few left in Wales where the | :00:51. | :00:55. | |
men work in tunnels too low to stand up in. | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
This is the scene at the mine right now. | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
Also on tonight's programme: In court the City trader accused of | :01:05. | :01:12. | |
making over �1 billion of losses weeps as he is charged with fraud. | :01:12. | :01:17. | |
Eurozone in crisis, the Chancellor describes the situation as grave. | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
Three, two, one... And crossing the divide, opening up | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
the wall that separates the two communities in Belfast for the firs | :01:24. | :01:34. | |
:01:34. | :02:01. | ||
Good evening, welcome to the BBC News at Six. Three of the four | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
miners trapped below ground in Wales have been found dead. The | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
police are making a statement now with the latest on the search for | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
the fourth man. Within the last few moments the Prime Minister has | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
described the situation as desperately, desperately sad. It's | :02:14. | :02:20. | |
been a day of agony for the families of the miners as rescuers | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
discovered the bodies of the men one by one but without being able | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
to confirm their identities. The men had been trapped 300 feet | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
underground, more than 24 hours early by flood waters which broke | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
through a retaining wall. Robert Hall has spent the day following | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
events at the mine. They had felt their way through the | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
filth and the darkness, defying exhaustion, straining to hear the | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
faintest signs of life. The pumps were still running outside the mine | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
entrance but the flow of water had slowed. Now the exhausted teams | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
could begin to search the maze of galleries and dig out the silt | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
swept in by the flood, hoping against hope that those they sought | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
had found safe haven beyond. I have been fantastically impressed | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
with all the emergency services. They've been totally professional, | :03:13. | :03:18. | |
totally committed, but I won't say it won't go without emotion as well. | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
There's a lot of emotion. It's a passionate rescue attempt. We care | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
about the people and that's important. | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
A mile away families, friends, neighbours sat together sleepless | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
in the village community centre, reaching out for scraps of | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
information from the Weiry men stumbling past to begin another | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
shift underground. They took khrft from -- comfort from the messages | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
of support, the gifts of foods and toy for the children but their | :03:47. | :03:53. | |
minds were in the dark galleries on the hill above. One family, his | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
wife didn't want him to go to work yesterday, but he insisted and it's | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
just devastating, not only for the community, but seems to be for the | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
whole valley. Everybody's devastated. With a new day had come | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
dread news, three families told that their hopes had been dashed, | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
that their men folk had been unable to escape the torrent. Everybody's | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
rallying around but everybody's traumatised because they've not | :04:21. | :04:26. | |
known this horror now for a generation or more and it's | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
terrible that it's been visited upon us now. Late this afternoon | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
the Prime Minister said his thoughts were with the whole | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
community. I spoke to the gold commander and it's clear the | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
emergency services have done everything they can, have worked | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
incredibly hard and they haven't lacked for anything but it's | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
obviously a desperately sad situation for everyone concerned. | :04:47. | :04:52. | |
Mining has been and will be at the heart of life in these valleys, now | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
the questions begin over the risks the men here faced and whether this | :04:56. | :05:03. | |
tragedy could have been avoided. While we have been on air the | :05:04. | :05:06. | |
police have been making a statement and have confirmed that they have | :05:06. | :05:13. | |
found the fourth body of a miner. They've offered their condolences | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
to the families, we can talk now to Robert Hall who joins us from the | :05:18. | :05:23. | |
Gleision Colliery. This has been a terrible day for the families and | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
people there and with this announcement from the police that | :05:25. | :05:31. | |
all four men have died. Yes, agony upon agony really. The news has | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
come out through the day, first one, then two, then three. There were | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
the necessary delays in formal identification, families who were | :05:41. | :05:47. | |
already in a terrible state looking for comfort from others, were | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
listening to the news, trying to follow what had happened, tried to | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
work out whether it would be their family who would finally be told. | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
Now the news has emerged. Let's hear from the Chief Constable who | :05:57. | :06:04. | |
has made this statement. I can confirm that the fourth dead | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
miner has now been recovered from the Gleision mine. On behalf of us | :06:09. | :06:16. | |
all, I would like to express our deepest and most sincere | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
condolences to the families of Philip Hill, David Powell, Garry | :06:20. | :06:27. | |
Jenkins and Charles Bresnan. Just to remind you of the names, | :06:27. | :06:34. | |
Charles Bresnan, 62, David Powell aged 50, Garry Jenkins 39, Philip | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
Hill 45. And as the Chief Constable said it's been an immensely | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
difficult operation for his men, some of them had not seen | :06:40. | :06:45. | |
conditions like it in 30 years and in the end the news nobody wanted. | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
Thank you. The Gleision Colliery is one of the | :06:49. | :06:55. | |
few remaining mines in South Wales. It's small scale, just seven men | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
worked there. Our science correspondent is here to look at | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
what could have gone wrong. First of all, what do you know about the | :07:01. | :07:03. | |
mine itself. It isn't the kind of mine that most | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
of us would imagine. It's small, one of a handful of this size in | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
South Wales, but the coal dug there is the highest quality there is, | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
and it fetches a good price on the world market so this team of miners | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
obviously thought it worthwhile to extract it. | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
The entrance to a scene of tragedy, pictures taken a few years ago | :07:24. | :07:30. | |
offer a surprisingly grim view of conditions inside. A battered | :07:30. | :07:36. | |
convoyer belt to carry coal, wooden supports to hold up the rock, a | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
miner's lamp, tunnels stretching underground seemingly unchanged for | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
decades. Today at the mine a cluster of | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
rescue crews, below them a steady flow of water, a positive sign | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
because pumps were at work shifting flood water from inside the mine, | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
an essential first step to clearing a path inside. | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
It may be a case of shovelling the silt to move it out of the way, | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
maybe timbers, maybe supports that have washed away and we will have | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
to replace them to make it safe to enter that area. That's what | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
they're trained to do. The mine is a drift mine, it's worked sideways | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
into the hillside rather than downwards. You walk in through a | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
hor stkaopb tal -- horizontal tunnel. The miners were working | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
more than 800 feet inside. They used explosives to dislodge the | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
rock, but that released flood water which filled part of the tunnel. | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
That was pumped out today, but debris formed another obstacle. | :08:36. | :08:42. | |
Rescuers can squeeze past it, but each step is hazardous. | :08:42. | :08:49. | |
These are keen men in Britain's key industry. For centuries the coal | :08:49. | :08:56. | |
mines exacted a a he tkr it -- heavy toll in casualties. With the | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
small mines like Gleision expected in the same way as the largest. | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
Many years there were horrendous stories and indeed some individuals | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
who had no respect for safety or the employees that worked for them. | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
Times have changed thankfully. This issue we faced with today is not in | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
that same context. I wouldn't put it in that context although the | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
effect is horrendous. Investigations are already under | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
way. The hills are rich in coal but tonight there are questions about | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
the human cost of getting it. Now, where mines like this one have | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
been dug on and off for decades there can be invisible dangers, | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
water can collect in unexpected pockets and stretches of rock can | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
be weaker than they look. A job that always carries risks can be | :09:39. | :09:49. | |
:09:49. | :09:50. | ||
made even more hazardous. A city trader wept in court today | :09:50. | :09:56. | |
as he was charged with fraud at UBS. After the hearing 31-year-old Kweku | :09:56. | :09:58. | |
Adoboli was remanded in custody. Here is our chief economics | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
correspondent. There was a big media presence at | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
City of London magistrates court, but this was the only glimpse they | :10:05. | :10:11. | |
got of the man accused of a �1.3 billion fraud. Kweku Adoboli was | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
remanded in custody until another hearing next week. He had wept in | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
court as he stood facing charges of fraud and two of false accounting, | :10:19. | :10:25. | |
one of which dated back to 2008. He was a senior trader in the London | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
office of the Swiss bank UBS. He was arrested at his desk in the | :10:29. | :10:33. | |
early hours of yesterday. It's alleged he dishonestly abused his | :10:33. | :10:39. | |
position, causing losses to the bank. His family home is in Ghana, | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
his father, a former UN official, has said the family was heartbroken | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
and he was hoping to hear his son's side of the story. Whatever the | :10:48. | :10:50. | |
trader's motives and whatever the details of the transactions, the | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
big questions being asked are why were senior management here at UBS | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
not aware of what was going on? And how could losses of more than �1 | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
billion be racked up without their knowledge? | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
It's not incredible in the sense that it will be very hard to | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
regulate away any of these sort of accidents happening, it is very | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
difficult to believe it's happened just now, when there's so much | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
attention being put on better enforcement and regulation. It's | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
not clear precisely what sort of deals Kweku Adoboli was carrying | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
out, his job involved complex and potentially risky trading with the | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
bank's money. To minimise risk there's a technique called hedging | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
of trades, a first transaction might involve putting money on a | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
market move going up, for example. But a second transaction puts money | :11:36. | :11:41. | |
on the opposite outcome, a market drop. Profits are made on the small | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
amount of difference in cost between the two. | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
But it goes wrong when the balancing debt isn't made or isn't | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
big enough and the markets move sharply leaving the trader with big | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
losses. Clearly we don't know what's happened in this case, there | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
are only allegations of rogue trading but think of allowing | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
somebody the sort of authority to run up a 2 billion losses, the | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
gentleman was a 31-year-old with a degree in computer science. I am | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
not sure what sum of money I would allow anyone with that background, | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
but it certainly wouldn't be two billion dollars of my capital. | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
what was going on and why his bosses didn't seem to know may only | :12:16. | :12:25. | |
become clear when the full case gets to trial. | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
A soldier who was shot dead while on foot patrol in Afghanistan | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
yesterday has been named. He was Lance Corporal Jonathan James | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
McKinlay from 1st Battalion, The Rifles. He was hit by small arms | :12:34. | :12:41. | |
fire while patrolling in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province. | :12:41. | :12:43. | |
The Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
has announced he's to run for the Irish Presidency. His party Sinn | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
Fein has confirmed that the former IRA Leader will contest next | :12:49. | :12:51. | |
month's election. He's due to be formally endorsed by his party | :12:51. | :12:58. | |
leadership over the weekend. European Union Finance Ministers | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
meeting in Poland have delayed until October a decision on whether | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
to pay the second instalment of a bailout loan to Greece. Speaking | :13:04. | :13:06. | |
beforehand, the Chancellor, George Osborne, described the situation in | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
the Eurozone as grave and urged fellow European ministers to | :13:09. | :13:15. | |
demonstrate their leadership. successful euro is massively in | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
Britain's national interest. At today's meeting I will be looking | :13:19. | :13:24. | |
for my European colleagues to send a clear signal that they truly | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
recognise the gravity of the situation and that they are dealing | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
with it. Let's speak to our Europe editor in Brussels. Ahead of the | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
IMF and the Chancellor both said Europe must act now and today's | :13:37. | :13:43. | |
announcement is of a delay. What do you make of it? Well, certainly not | :13:43. | :13:48. | |
helpful, there were more warnings today as to how serious this crisis | :13:48. | :13:55. | |
is. The US Treasury Secretary speaking in dramatic terms, he said | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
there was catastrophic risk to the global economy from the crisis. The | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
Americans at this meeting in Poland were looking for a big gesture | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
perhaps increasing the size of the bail-out fund so countries like | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
Italy could be looked after. But the Europeans at this stage weren't | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
prepared to go along with that. As regards Greece, well we won't know | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
until mid-October probably, until they qualify for an extra tranche | :14:19. | :14:25. | |
of money and so put off a default. I think what today demonstrated | :14:25. | :14:33. | |
once again, just how difficult it is making progress with this crisis. | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
Thank you. Our top story: | :14:36. | :14:41. | |
The bodies of all four miners have been recovered from the mine in the | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
Swansea Valley. The Prime Minister has described it as a desperately | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
sad situation. Coming up: A first glimpse through | :14:49. | :14:59. | |
:14:59. | :15:12. | ||
the wall which has divided a The Palestinian President, Mahmoud | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
Abbas, has signalled a significant step in trying to break through the | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
impasse with Israel. He has announced that he will apply for | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
full membership of the United Nations next week. The US says it | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
will veto any application on the grounds that only direct talks with | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
Israel will bring Palestinians independence. He wants a state | :15:31. | :15:36. | |
alongside Israel, based on the borders that existed before the | :15:36. | :15:40. | |
Middle East war of 1967, when Israel captured land in Gaza, the | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
West Bank and East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want the capital. | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
Israel said the plan is unrealistic and indefensible because close to | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
half a million Israelis living more than 200 settlements and outposts | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
in those areas. From Jerusalem, Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen | :15:56. | :16:04. | |
The campaign for Palestinian membership of the UN stopped | :16:04. | :16:10. | |
traffic in Ramallah, in the Israeli occupied West Bank. Israel and the | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
Americans say going to the UN could put a stop to any chance of fees. | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
President Abbas, in a speech broadcast live from Ramallah, | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
announced his determination to go ahead with an application that the | :16:23. | :16:31. | |
Americans say they will veto. We are going to the UN to ask for the | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
legitimate right of full membership, he said, taking with us the | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
suffering and hope of our people. He rejected criticism that he | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
wanted to deal legitimise Israel. He says his only targets were it | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
promises, the occupation and settlement of the land Israel | :16:48. | :16:56. | |
captain in 1967, which Palestinians Palestinians say they have reversed | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
long enough, their security forces here on another practice run, are | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
ready for independence, they say, along for the other institutions a | :17:05. | :17:12. | |
But Israel's stubbornness, the President said, means negotiations | :17:12. | :17:19. | |
are at a dead end, so they are turning to the UN. Israel's | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
campaign against includes a video blaming the Palestinians for not | :17:22. | :17:29. | |
accepting a Jewish state. What about security arrangements? What | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
about Jerusalem? It will need to be agreed. In an agreement, you give | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
and take. In a resolution, you just take, that is the biggest thing. | :17:39. | :17:46. | |
This is not what it seems. Both sides are Israelis. They are | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
rehearsing for an attack by Palestinians on a Jewish settlement | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
in the West Bank. Many Israelis predict a UN vote will touch off | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
new violence. The ingredients of this conflict are always the same, | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
and what the Palestinians are trying to do is to change the | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
diplomatic game decisively in their favour. It is a risky strategy, | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
given the hostility at the Israelis and the Americans. The talk of | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
imminent violence may be overdone, but there is no doubt that the | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
temperature is rising again. The conflict is going to continue, | :18:19. | :18:25. | |
whatever happens at the UN next week. The question is whether the | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
Palestinian UN tactic makes matters better or worse. | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
Jeremy is in Jerusalem now. How significant is his application by | :18:34. | :18:39. | |
the Palestinian President to apply for full membership of the UN? | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
think it is significant, significant because it shows very | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
clearly the way the Palestinians want to go, which is no surprise, | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
but it also shows that they are doing it in defiance of what the | :18:49. | :18:54. | |
Americans want and what the Israelis say as possible. They are | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
prepared to precipitate a crisis, to try to change the diplomatic | :18:58. | :19:04. | |
game. Now, when they come back from the UN, they are hoping to enhance | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
their negotiating position so that when they go into talks again, they | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
will have, they say, the will of the international community behind | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
them, and that will strengthen them. I think, though, it is going to be | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
a difficult time, because the Americans are going to veto this, | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
they say. The Israelis are talking about all kinds of retaliation, | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
possibly damaging financial retaliation. So the jury is still | :19:30. | :19:35. | |
out about which way this is going to go, whether it will make things | :19:35. | :19:43. | |
better or precipitate a new crisis. It was put up two decades ago to | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
calm sectarian violence in Belfast, and now a section of the three- | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
metre high peace wall which runs through a park has a gate and has | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
been open for the first time. It will be left open for the next | :19:54. | :19:56. | |
three months, allowing schoolchildren from both sides to | :19:56. | :20:04. | |
play together. From Belfast, here is Mark Simpson. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! | :20:04. | :20:11. | |
Yes! It only took five seconds to overturn two decades of separation. | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
These Catholic and Protestant schoolchildren were the first to go | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
through the new peace Gate in a north Belfast park. It is thought | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
to be the only part in Western Europe with a three-metre high | :20:23. | :20:29. | |
fence running through the middle of it. Even the river is divided. | :20:29. | :20:34. | |
Alexandra parker as two separate playgrounds, in effect a Catholic | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
set of swings and a Protestant said. Sectarian fighting in the area | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
forced the building of the thinking the month in the early 1990s, but | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
it did not stop the violence, which simply moved to streets nearby. | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
Community relations have now improved, and from today's | :20:52. | :20:57. | |
schoolchildren will be able to play in both parts. It is a chance to | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
make new friends and we can all play together. You can play with | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
like other friends from this side, and you can like take them to the | :21:06. | :21:12. | |
park and show them all around the park. The adults were excited, too. | :21:12. | :21:18. | |
For me, this is on a par with the Berlin Wall. I am just so pleased | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
to be part of living history here in Northern Ireland. But the so- | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
called peace Gate will not be up and one of the time. It will be | :21:26. | :21:31. | |
shut every afternoon at 3 o'clock. It will also be closed at weekends. | :21:32. | :21:38. | |
The divisions in Northern Ireland Randi. There are 59 peace walls. | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
Removing these barriers will be a long and difficult process. But | :21:41. | :21:50. | |
today at least it began. Back to our top story now, and | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
confirmation that Paul four miners trapped below ground in Wales have | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
died. -- All four. There is a strong sense of community around | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
the mine in the Swansea Valley. There may only be a handful of | :22:02. | :22:05. | |
working mines left, but the dangers of the industry have always cast a | :22:05. | :22:11. | |
shadow. Colette Hume reports from a town near the colliery where the | :22:11. | :22:13. | |
events have affected the entire town. | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
These valleys are no stranger to tragedy. Over the years, | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
communities across Wales have paid a heavy price for coal. Today, this | :22:21. | :22:29. | |
community is paying a heavy price In this town of just 5,000 people, | :22:29. | :22:35. | |
everyone has a connection with mining. The castle was once a Minas | :22:35. | :22:40. | |
pub. On a handful of men work in small private minds, but emotions | :22:40. | :22:45. | |
run deep. We used to hear about accidents like this happening years | :22:45. | :22:50. | |
ago, but we rarely hear of events happening like this now, so it is | :22:50. | :22:56. | |
even worse. I am devastated, really. I'm not sure if I know anybody | :22:56. | :23:04. | |
working there, but I know a lot of local people. It does bring it home | :23:04. | :23:10. | |
to you that it is a hard life that they have, where they work. This | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
town, like so many in South Wales, was built on coal. Generations | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
worked in the minds, and it is in this community that the families | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
will find support. The fact that you feel that the community is | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
growing together to support them as best as they possibly can, you can | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
only feel for them and all of them. Mining was once the biggest | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
industry in Wales, and every family knew the risks the men faced when | :23:39. | :23:46. | |
they went to work. But there was little other choice. Tonight, four | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
families have been changed forever by a tragedy which unfolded | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
hundreds of feet underground, a community shaved by Cole is now | :23:54. | :24:02. | |
angry. -- shaped by coal. The shadow Welsh secretary Peter | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
Hain joins us now from the community centre near the mine. You | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
have been there since this rescue operation began. In the last few | :24:10. | :24:18. | |
minutes, it is a tragic day for families there. Yes, they have been | :24:18. | :24:21. | |
through tortuous long hours. Yesterday, right through the night, | :24:21. | :24:24. | |
around 3am, discovering and hearing that the first body had been | :24:24. | :24:29. | |
recovered, the first dead miner had been recovered, but he had not been | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
brought out, so they could not be identified. Seven long hours, they | :24:33. | :24:41. | |
wondered which of the four family's, they did not know, and then another | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
dead miner was found but could not be recovered and brought out. | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
Finally, of course, utter despair, as we know. Their courage and | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
determination help them through that, but they have been through a | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
nightmare that almost nobody could imagine. The rescue effort to find | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
the men, it was unflagging, the determination to try to find a sign | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
of life. Yes, it was, and these were terrible conditions. The water | :25:06. | :25:12. | |
had to be pumped out. First, divers went down, debris, darkness, sludge, | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
or the difficulties of that, and then the water was pumped out and | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
the rescue workers went down, superhuman, showing fantastic | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
energy and relentless dedication. And they were not sure whether they | :25:24. | :25:31. | |
might find the roof falling in on them, so this was a rescue | :25:31. | :25:33. | |
operation that at least these families could cling on to that | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
meant everything was being done to try to recover their loved ones, | :25:37. | :25:42. | |
and sadly, desperately, that was not possible, as we now know. | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
are the local MP. What is your sense of how the community will | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
pull together now? Well, everybody is already pulling together. These | :25:50. | :25:57. | |
are communities in the South Wales valleys, where everybody has got a | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
caring spirit for each other. That is what expresses the mining | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
communities. They go back generations, and they never thought | :26:04. | :26:09. | |
they would have a tragedy like this. They will come together, but the | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
families are going to need a lot of support as they come to terms with | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
their grief and what they have lost and the horror that they have been | :26:15. | :26:19. | |
through. I'm sure everybody will rally in the spirit of the way they | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
have done over the last 36 hours or so, but they will need it even more, | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
that support that these valleys are also renowned for. Peter Hain, | :26:28. | :26:34. | |
thank you very much for joining us from the Swansea Valley. | :26:34. | :26:40. | |
Let's take a look at the weekend Not a complete washout, but we will | :26:40. | :26:45. | |
need to be prepared for showers wherever you live. Blustery showers, | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
too, across the southern half of the UK, where it will be quite | :26:48. | :26:54. | |
windy. Nowhere will be terribly warm. Some rain across the North of | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
Scotland, then showers rattling in from the West made in a night, so a | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
speckling of showers first thing in the morning. Some brightness around, | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
but a keen old wind blowing those showers through Northern Ireland, | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
across the Irish Sea. Thundery across north-west England and Wales. | :27:10. | :27:15. | |
The breeze means that those showers will move through quite quickly, so | :27:15. | :27:19. | |
in no one play should it be raining for that long, but on the other | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
side of the kind, the sunshine should not last long either. It | :27:22. | :27:28. | |
will be one of those days. It will feel quite cool in the breeze, | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
temperatures around 15 degrees typically. Across northern England, | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
the winds lighter, the showers further north will last that much | :27:36. | :27:39. | |
longer, so although yes across Scotland there will be sunshine, if | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
you get underneath one of those showers, it could last quite a | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
while. Blustery around the southwesterly coasts, and wherever | :27:48. | :27:53. | |
you are, despite sunshine, it will fill decidedly cool, especially | :27:53. | :28:00. | |
with the showers. 16-18 degrees, maybe 19 across the south-east in | :28:00. | :28:05. | |
prolonged sunshine. No two days are exactly the same, but it would be | :28:05. | :28:09. | |
very different on Sunday. Showery rain for a time across the heart of | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
England, some sunshine if you are lucky, but do not rely on it to | :28:13. | :28:17. | |
stay dry. If you are in the Great North Run, it will not be too warm, | :28:17. | :28:22. | |
but go prepared for quite heavy showers. A mixed weekend, more | :28:22. | :28:29. | |
A reminder of the main news: The bodies of four four miners have | :28:30. | :28:34. |