One person has been killed and 12 are trapped about 300m (1,000ft) underground at a former Colorado gold mine that’s now a tourist attraction.

It happened around noon on Thursday when a lift failed at Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine attraction in Cripple Creek.

Rescuers are trying to repair the elevator to bring the trapped people back to the surface.

With one group already below ground, the lift had a mechanical fault with another group inside as it was about halfway down the mineshaft, said Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell.

The incident killed one person – although it’s not been revealed how they died – and four others suffered minor injuries.

That group was able to return to the surface but the lift is out of commission until the problem is identified and fixed.

Radio communication with the trapped group – 11 tourists and their guide – is working and they have water, blankets and chairs, said the sheriff.

He said they hadn’t been told someone had died, only that there’s a problem with the lift.

Firefighters are on standby for a rescue operation if the fault can’t be fixed.

“If we have to, we can bring people up on those ropes, but it also subjects those first responders now to the threat
and endangerment of doing so,” said Mr Mikesell.

The former mine is about 110 miles (180km) south of Denver and has been operating tours for 50 years.

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Hurricane Milton has made landfall in Florida, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has said.

The category 3 storm hit shores near Siesta Key in Sarasota County around 8.30pm local time on Wednesday, bringing sustained winds of 120mph, the NHC in Miami said.

More than one million homes and businesses were without power – the highest of which were in Sarasota County and neighbouring Manatee County, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

Hurricane Milton latest: Follow live updates

Milton is expected to bring a deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

At the time of landfall, nearly 100,000 people were in evacuation centres across Florida, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported, citing Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Speaking from the White House earlier on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said Milton is expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in Florida in over a century”.

He said it carries “incredible destructiveness and can wipe out communities and cause loss of life” while urging everyone in its path to listen to the advice of local officials.

Within minutes of Milton making landfall, a gust of 100mph was recorded in the Egmont Channel, south of St Petersburg, according to the NHC.

‘Daylight will reveal the full impact’

Reporting from Tampa, as the storm made landfall 60 miles away, Sky News US correspondent James Matthews said you could feel its “devastating power”.

“You can hear it in the roar, and sense it. You can feel it in the wind,” he said.

“They have called this a historic hurricane. The strongest to hit this part of Florida for more than 100 years.

“Reduced from a category 5 to a category 3 storm by the time it hit, but that doesn’t mean that it is not extremely powerful, extremely dangerous, and will have, one imagines, a devastating impact.

“This is all happening in the hours of darkness, daylight will reveal the full impact of Hurricane Milton.”

On Wednesday, officials issued last ditch attempts urging the near two million people under evacuation orders to flee or face slim chances of survival.

Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, said: “Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”

While Paul Womble, Polk County emergency management director, said: “Unless you really have a good reason to leave at this point, we suggest you just hunker down.”

A stream of vehicles was pictured headed north on Interstate 75, the main road on the west side of the peninsula, as residents followed evacuation orders.

Traffic also clogged up the southbound lanes of the road for miles as others headed for the relative safety of Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the other side of the state.

Meanwhile, animals at Tampa’s zoo took shelter in hurricane-hardened buildings.

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The region is still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities and killed more than 200 people.

Once past Florida, Milton should weaken over the west of the Atlantic Ocean, possibly dropping below hurricane strength on Thursday night, but storm-surges will still pose a threat to the state’s Atlantic coast.

US officials have confirmed they are considering breaking up Google’s “illegal monopoly” of internet searches.

The tech giant could face restrictions on its own products – including its Chrome browser, Play Store and Android operating system, the US Justice Department said.

It comes after a judge found in August the company had broken anti-trust laws to ensure its dominance of online searches.

Officials have now outlined a series of proposals to dismantle the company’s monopoly in a court filing.

The plans include blocking Google from paying other tech firms to have its search engine pre-installed or set as the default option on new devices.

The firm paid out more than $26bn (£20bn) in 2021 to companies such as iPhone maker Apple as part of the practice.

A Justice Department spokesperson said: “Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.”

Google said the court filing was part of a “long process” and confirmed it would appeal against the ruling.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said the “radical changes” proposed went too far and accused the US government of having a “sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products”.

She added the move would risk the privacy and security of users, hamper the development of its artificial intelligence products and “break” software such as Android.

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The government’s announcement comes following earlier reports that officials were considering moves to tackle Google’s monopoly.

Meanwhile, in a separate case on Monday, a judge ordered Google must open up its app store to greater competition, including making Android apps available from rival sources.

Judge James Donato said the firm should stop requiring its own payment system to be used for apps on the Play Store.

The ruling follows a court battle between Google and Epic Games, which makes the popular video game Fortnite, over in-app purchases.