Police: 'Working feverishly' to save miners

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(CNN) -- At least nine miners were trapped about 300 feet underground following a cave-in Wednesday in southwestern Pennsylvania.

David Holtzman of the Pennsylvania State Police spoke with CNN and offered details of the rescue operation.

HOLTZMAN: The crews are working feverishly to get to the miners. We are bringing in additional drilling equipment to drill the shafts down, pump out the water and get some air into to where they believe that these miners are.

Most of the working area down there is only about 40 inches high.

I believe there are several mine rescue teams there that are skilled and trained in this type of rescue operation ... to make sure that they are all right, to get air to them, and to drop down some communication to find out what exactly is going on down there.

They have drilling equipment. They can bore a hole that's wide enough for the crews to bring up an individual probably one at a time out of that shaft. So they are drilling basically directly over them to get down to them.

It began at approximately 8:50 p.m. [Wednesday]. There were two crews down in the mine drilling coal. Apparently, there was an unmarked or unknown mineshaft on the opposite side of the coal of where they were drilling. When they drilled into the coal, that mineshaft on the other side was flooded with water, and the water began to pour into the shaft that they were in. They radioed to a crew that was behind them that they were being flooded. That crew made it to safety. The initial crew that was boring the coal are the ones that are trapped down there now.