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By ALEXANDRA ROBILLARD
The Canadian Press

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LEBEL-SUR-QUEVILLON, Que. - A grieving relative says three dead miners drowned in such frigid water that their bodies were frozen blocks of ice by the time they were recovered.

After a frenzied rescue effort, their bodies were found three days after they were trapped when the northern Quebec mine flooded Friday.

Rescue workers had frantically pumped water from hundreds of metres below the ground in the hope of finding the men alive.

But Pietro Bollini said Tuesday there's no way the three men - including his brother, Domenico - could have survived for long.

He said rescue workers did their best but the water was so cold the men must have died within minutes.

"Submerged in water like that? Forget it. They were blocks of ice," Bollini said.