Reflooding has “complicated efforts” to recover 10 miners who have been trapped for nearly three weeks in a Coahuila coal mine in northern Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) admitted Monday, Aug. 22.

Water levels inside the El Pinabete mine, in the town of Sabinas in Coahuil, rose again over the weekend as rescue efforts continued to no avail, the president said at his daily press conference.

“Unfortunately, we still haven’t been able to rescue the Sabinas miners … progress was being made but then we had the bad luck of another hole opening up in the flooded mine next door and the water levels rose again,” he added during his presser on Tuesday, Aug. 23.

The El Pinabete mine collapsed on Aug. 3 when miners dug into an adjoining area containing water.

Water flooded three pits connected by tunnels, trapping the miners, who are now assumed to be dead.