Ten missing after second mine accident

Ten people are missing following a tremor in a mine in Poland on Saturday, the second accident of this kind to have occurred this week in this country which still depends on coal for nearly 70% of its energy. “Rescuers are without contact with 10 people” who were in the Zofiowka mine, said in a press release the company JSW, which also owns the Pniowek mine where an accident caused the death of five people on Wednesday and where one remained hopeless for seven more.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who found the information about the accident “devastating”, said he would go there. He also hoped “that there will be no deaths and that the rescuers will find alive” the minors sought.

42 miners unharmed

According to JSW, Saturday’s tremor occurred 900 meters deep at 3:40 a.m. local time at the Zofiowka mine. It was accompanied by a major methane leak. Fifty-two miners were near where the tremor took place. Forty-two of them were able to return to the surface unscathed.

Twelve rescue teams were involved in the rescue operation. According to a statement from JSW, they had made progress in their search and were around noon about 600 meters from where the wanted minors are likely to be.

Saturday’s accident is the second in four days in Poland. On Wednesday, a firedamp explosion in the Pniowek mine caused the death of five people. There was no news of seven others who were still in the mine while the rescue operation, deemed “dangerous” after several other methane explosions, was officially abandoned on Friday. Twenty people were hospitalized, including six for serious burns following this accident.

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