‘Broken promise’: Pike River families urge minister to continue mission to recover victims

Families say they were blindsided' by last week's announcement and that many opposed it

Families of the miners killed in the Pike River mining disaster say they disagree with the representative group who last week accepted the government's decision to stop funding efforts to recover bodies or evidence from the explosion.

Twenty-nine men were killed when an explosion ripped through the Pike River mine on the west coast in November 2010. Their bodies remain in the mine.