SHILLONG: Navy on Thursday managed to spot one body out of 15 miners from the illegal coal mine from a depth of more than 200 feet. Search operations are continuing for the rest of the trapped miners.

Rescue teams, including the Indian Navy and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) spotted the body with the help of an Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (UWROV) which used to locate objects underwater.

The body of miner was recovered from a depth of over 200 feet, weeks after minors had got trapped in the mine located at Ksan near Lytein river in East Jaintia Hills on December 13 last year. The miners got trapped as water from a nearby river flooded the mine.

National Geophysical Research Institute, the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), and other private research institutes including Planys Technology are helping government to locate the missing miners.

According to Sources ,  crores of litres of water have been pumped out from the 350-feet deep mine but the water level inside it has remained unchanged.

The operation to rescue the trapped miners was first launched by the NDRF team, along with help from SDRF and civil administration but due to unavailabilty of the resources, the rescue efforts were stalled.