Wellington - New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said he did not know when the bodies of 29 miners will be returned to their families.
Key met with the families of the miners on Thursday to express his condolences.
He promised there would be an inquiry into the disaster. He could not say when the bodies would be returned to the families. "I don't think it will take days, we are talking longer than that," he said.
New Zealand police said there was no quick fix when it came to recovering the bodies of the 29 men in the Pike River coal mine.
Gary Knowles, the operation chief, said in Greymouth that it could be days or weeks before the environment in the mine was stabilised.
He said air samples were still being taken and there was still an extreme risk to send people underground.
He confirmed that two Defence robots equipped with cameras were in the mine at the time of the second explosion.
Earlier, Assistant Police Commissioner Grant Nicholls said no decision has been made as to when and how the bodies of the miners will be recovered.
He said that before the bodies can be recovered, the heat source and gases in the mine need to be identified, and the risk of another explosion needs to be assessed.
