Pike river mine families accept end of mission to find victims 'with heartbreak'

Government says it will no longer fund risky mission to retrieve 29 bodies from site of New Zealand's worst mining disaster

Families of the men who died in one of New Zealand's worst mining disasters have expressed their heartbreak that the government has ended funding to re-enter the mine, leaving the remains of their loved ones trapped inside.

Twenty-nine men were killed when an explosion ripped through the Pike river mine on the west coast in November 2010. Their bodies have not been recovered, and remain in the mine.