Following the discovery of the bodies of the four trapped miners at the flooded Gleision Colliery in Wales, the Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan has announced an inquiry into what happened.

Flooding began at the mine on Thursday morning and while three miners managed to escape in time, the remaining four were trapped.

Rescue workers attempted to pump water out of the flooded mine and to pump oxygen in, in a bid to save the lost miners. At the time it was not known whether any or all of them were still alive.

On Friday morning divers entered the mine and discovered the body of one of the miners. Throughout the day the bodies of the remaining three miners were also found.

The dead men were Garry Jenkins, 39, Phillip Hill, 45, David Powell, 50 and Charles Breslin, 62.

Gillan said of the inquiry, which will be headed by South Wales Police and then the Health and Safety Executive, "We must ensure we learn the lessons and find out what happened to these men."

Political and religious leaders have all expressed their condolences to the families of those killed in what has been nearly universally described as a "tragedy".