MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tragedy in Patagonia coal mine.

Six miners killed, eight missing and dozens treated for intoxication with carbon monoxide is the primary result of a fire that swept through a coal mine 600 meters deep, in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz a few miles away from Puerto Natales in Chile.

While firefighters continue to combat the blaze that broke out on Monday, rescue teams are desperately trying to enter the shaft where the miners became trapped after sections of the mine started to collapse with the fire.

Two bodies were found soon after entering the mine Tuesday afternoon and later on two others 400 meters into the shaft.

Santa Cruz province Mines and Geology Department Director Claudia Lurlund confirmed six deaths, "four of them probably trodden or asphyxiated when over fifty miners fled to safety".

Chances of finding the other men alive "are almost nonexistent" because of the high concentration of carbon monoxide admitted Rio Turbio Mayor Matias Mazu.

Miners became trapped in a three to four kilometer long section of the Rio Turbio mine when they tried to escape from the smoke and fire which apparently sparked off from a wooden conveyer belt transporting coal.

Rio Turbio, Argentina's only coal mine, belongs to state-owned Yacimientos Carboniferos Rio Turbio, which recently announced plans to invest millions in an effort to increase coal production.

Annual production is 200.000 tons but in its best days reached 400,000 tons. Deposits are estimated in 697 million tons. Given the proximity with Chile, it's estimated that a third of the labor force in Rio Turbio is Chilean.

Argentine president and former governor of Santa Cruz Nestor Kirchner visited the tragic scene Wednesday afternoon promising support for the miners families and an in depth investigation into the "accident".