Coal mine explosion in Columbia kills 11; 10 more trapped
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Representational
Bogot: A coal mine exploded in Colombia on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people while ten more art trapped inside, Agence France-Presse reported citing authorities.
The governor of the Cundinamarca department said that the accident happened in the municipality of Sutatausa after gases accumulated in the mine and exploded after a worker’s tool issued a spark.
The explosion that happened late on Tuesday night was inside a series of legal mines that are linked. Firefighters and rescue workers are in operation, as per reports from the local media.
The other miners are trapped 900 metres underground, and this makes the 100 rescuers in operation difficult. Every passing minute reduces oxygen, the governor said.
Columbia mainly exports oil and coal. Also, mining accidents are very frequent here.
August last year saw an accident in which nine miners were rescued from a collapsed illegal coal mine in the central Cundinamarca department.
The country recorded 148 deaths in mining accidents in 2021.