Only one of the 13 miners trapped deep in a West Virginia coal mine has been found alive, shattering the hopes of families who were told hours earlier that a dozen had survived.

Amid extraordinary scenes, Ben Hatfield, the chief executive of the International Coal Group, said that earlier reports suggesting 12 of the men had survived 41 hours underground were the result of a "mis-communication".

"It's beyond belief... welcome to the worst day of my life," he told reporters.

Shortly before midnight (0500GMT today), bells pealed and cheers were heard at the Sago Baptist Church - where relatives had kept vigil - as West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin announced: "They told us they have 12 alive. Believe in miracles..."

Three hours later, the euphoria turned to despair. Fistfights broke out as joy turned to bewilderment and then anger.

A man whose brother-in-law was among those trapped in the mine told CNN: "We feel like we've been lied to. It's horrible, there's screaming and crying... This is the most horrible thing to ever happen to me in my lifetime."

Mr Hatfield said that the reports which triggered the celebrations were based on a misunderstanding during a conversation between rescue teams working underground and officers in the control centre. It is unclear who passed this information on to the 200 relatives waiting in the church for news.

He said: "There was a mis-communication. I don't know on whose end it was, there was a mis-communication that resulted in the command centre believing there were 12 survivors.

"Through stray cell phone conversations, this mis-communication was picked up by various people who simply overheard the conversation. We couldn't confirm it, but the information spread like wildfire. It got out of control."

Asked who nobody stepped in to dampen the celebrations, he said: "We couldn't correct the information without knowing more about it. There was a great deal of confusion between the rescue teams fighting valiantly to save lives. These people were doing their level best ... the information got mis-communicated and gave us a bad result of raising hopes beyond the level to which they should have been raised."

Mr Hatfield confirmed that only one man, Randall McCloy, 26 and by far the youngest of the group, had been rescued alive from the mineshaft. He was lifted unconscious from the mine and rushed to hospital in a critical condition. He has since regained consciousness and been transferred to a specialist unit at bigger hospital where he is being treated for dehydration and a collapsed lung.

Mr Hatfield said that one of the 13 men, Terry Helms, had been killed by the force of the initial blast which caused a rockfall to block the tunnel some 200ft below ground early yesterday.

The remaining miners holed themselves up in a refuge behind a makeshift barricade structure and gas curtain. They survived for an unknown length of time but apparrently succumbed to the high levels of toxic gas in the air.

A visibly shocked Mr Manchin appeared at a press conference soon afterwards.

"I can't tell you of anything more heart-wrenching I've ever gone through in my life. Nothing. Sheer gut-wrenching," he said.

The Governor said that he was in the church with the miners' relatives when he first heard the news of the "survival" at shortly after midnight: "They were in a euphoric state, the shouting, screaming and joyfulness. Bells were ringing, people were happy. I asked my people and said 'do you know what's happening?' We were wired in and we didn't know.

"The families kept saying 12 people were alive. We were going out into a sea of people ... l'm in a euphoric state the same as they are, you can imagine."

Mr Manchin, whose uncle was one of 78 people killed in a 1968 mining disaster, said that he was aware of the importance of passing on accurate information quickly to families.

"I walked out of the church. I said: 'Is that confirmed?'. I said: 'Where's it coming from?' We go out with the people. We go to the mine site to find out. About 20 minutes later we heard there were some confusion in the state of the rescue operation all this is coming about."

Asked why authorities did not immediately pass this information on to the families, he replied: "I believe in miracles, especially in West Virginia. I had so much hope. I was as euphoric as everyone else, I wanted to believe."

Referring to the sole survivor, he said: "All I can say is that we have one miracle. I'm so thankful to the Good Lord that we have that miracle. I would like to have had 13, sadly that was not the case."

The blast - thought to have been triggered by a lightning bolt igniting a build up of methane gas - occurred at about 6.40am on Monday, trapping the men 260ft (80m) below the surface and nearly two miles from the mineshaft opening. The 13 workers had just entered the mine for the start of the first shift after the Christmas and new year holiday.

DEEP TROUBLE

July 2002

Nine miners were rescued after being trapped in a Pennsylvania mine for three days

January 1959

Twelve died and sixty-nine were trapped for three days after a mine flooded in Jenkins Township, Pennsylvania

February 1943

Seventy-four miners and a rescue worker died in an explosion in Smith Mine, Montana

December 1907

An explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, killed 362 miners in America’s worst mining disaster

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