The 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground following a mine collapse in 2010 have expressed their anger after a prosecutor ended an investigation into the incident.
The cave-in at the San Jose mine in the Atacama desert brought the mine's safety record into focus and put mining, Chile's main industry, under close scrutiny.
The decision by a prosecutor in Atacama to bring no charges against the owners of the mine or government regulators was announced late yesterday after a three-year investigation.
Mario Sepulveda, who became the public face of the miners, claimed that the dropping of the investigation is "a disgrace to Chile's justice system".
"It's impossible that in an accident of this magnitude no-one is held responsible," he said.
"Today, I want to dig a deep hole and bury myself again, only this time I don't want anybody to find me."
The miners were buried when the shaft they were working in caved in above them on 5 August 2010, filing the lower parts of the copper and gold mine with suffocating dust.
After the collapse, rescue workers on the surface did not know for over two weeks that the men had survived the collapse, with the 33 men surviving for 17 days on a 48-hour emergency food supply.
The men lived on capsules of tuna and expired milk for the 17 days before a narrow shaft reached them, which allowed food and water to reach the men while rescue workers drilled a bigger escape hole.
Finally, in an operation that ended in the early hours of October 13, the miners were hauled up one by one in a cage through 600m of collapsed rock.
