In the early afternoon, a series of explosions struck the Cethin Colliery, two miles from the South Wales town of Merthyr Tytfil. Rescuers immediately descended into the 3600 foot mine and found forty-seven fellow miners dead from either poison gas or the effects of the explosions. Two more bodies were found later, bringing the total deaths to forty-nine. Two hundred other men at work in the mine at the time survived. (By John Osborne)