Three miners were killed last night in a tunnel collapse as they tried to reach six colleagues who have been buried under a Utah mountain for 11 days.

Six more of the rescue party were injured, and the Utah state governor has now called for rescue attempts to be scaled back because of the danger of more lives being lost.

"We as a state don't want any more injuries. We've had enough," said Jon Huntsman, the state governor.

"I think the underground mining is going to cease, for the time being." Above ground drilling could continue, in the increasingly desperate attempts to locate the trapped miners, he said.

The rescue party at the Genwal Mine in Crandall Canyon still had more than 1,000ft to go to reach the chamber 1,500ft down where, it is hoped, the missing men may have found shelter and enough breathable air to survive for 11 days.

Experts say that they were tunnelling through rubble last night when a mountain "bump" occurred, a sudden increase of pressure which causes coal to shoot out of the tunnel walls with great force, and the tunnel to cave in.

One of rescuers died at the scene, a second at the Utah Medical Centre from “multiple traumas” and the third died late last night from his injuries. All were colleagues of the six missing men who remain entombed underground.

There have been no signs of life from the mine since the pit collapse which buried six men on August 6, only an unexplained noise picked up by a microphone on Wednesday. The noise lasted a few minutes then stopped.

The latest tragedy happened against a background of continuous seismic activity in the mine, making it dangerous to enter. Robert Murray, the mine-owner, said last weekend that current conditions in the mine were the most difficult he had seen in over 50 years.

He cautioned that the noise picked up by the microphone need not have been the trapped men signalling for help. “We’ve said all along, those sounds could have been anything. They could have been anything from water running, somebody walking on the surface, or thunder which was going on when we picked those sounds up."

Mr Murray said this week that some miners had asked to be taken off the rescue effort because it was too dangerous and they feared for their own safety.

Mr Huntsman paid tribute to the sacrifice of those who died in the latest tragedy, saying that their lives had not been given in vain.

"There is nothing more selfless than giving your life in pursuit of saving another," he said, after visiting a hospital where relatives of the victims have gathered.

The mine lies in a remote mountainous region around 120 miles (193 kilometres) southeast of Salt Lake City.

The Utah drama has revived memories of the doomed effort to reach 13 miners who were trapped after an explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia in January 2006. Twelve miners died and only one survived after being buried underground for 41 hours.

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