The agonising wait for an all-clear to enter the mine was etched on the faces of rescue officials as they told reporters that teams were now unlikely to be allowed into the mine until Tuesday.
Efforts to rescue 29 men trapped in a New Zealand coal mine stalled for a third day on Monday, with authorities fearing the colliery is a powder keg of explosive gases and relatives praying for a miracle.
The agonising wait for an all-clear to enter the mine was etched on the faces of rescue officials as they told reporters that teams were now unlikely to be allowed into the mine until Tuesday, four days after an explosion tore through it.
For the first time since the blast on Friday, officials spoke openly about the possibility that men might have died in the explosion, which experts say would have sent a searing fireball through the mine, leaving a smouldering cocktail of toxic gases.
"Everyone is on tenterhooks and there is exhaustion everywhere. Tempers are frayed. We are going into a fourth day and it is gut-wrenching," local mayor Tony Kokshoorn said.
There has been no contact with the miners since the explosion at the Pike River mine, which is dug horizontally into a mountain range on the rugged west coast of New Zealand's South Island.
Officials say it is possible the men could have found a pocket of clean air, and be huddling around it until help arrives, but it is unclear if they have enough food and water, beyond what they would have carried in with them for their shift.
The men's initial emergency oxygen supplies would have lasted only up to an hour or so.
It is expected to be at least another 12 hours before air-quality tests from a new drill hole, which is close to completion, can provide more information about conditions in the mine, with a robot being readied to enter the main shaft.
The robot cannot enter if there is a risk that its electronics will set off another explosion in the mine.
"Tests should be starting to tell us something by tomorrow and until someone tells us there is no hope, then there is heaps of it," mayor Kokshoorn told reporters, as school children tied yellow ribbons, representing hope, to lamp posts around the nearby town of Greymouth.
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