The explosion, which occurred Tuesday night at a coal mine in central Colombia, killed 21 people, authorities said Thursday, in one of the worst tragedies in recent years in a country where accidents of this type are common.
• Also read: ‘I thought I was choking’: race against time in Colombia to rescue ten trapped miners
“Unfortunately, 21 people lost their lives in this tragic accident in Sutatausa,” tweeted Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday in the Cundinamarca Department.
Department Governor Nicolas Garcia announced on Wednesday that 11 people had been found dead in the mine and that search operations were continuing to rescue 10 more people who were stuck.
A total of 30 people were in this legal mine, which is about 75 km from the capital Bogota, at the time of the explosion.
Despite a race against time as the cavities ran out of oxygen, multiple landslides prevented rescuers from entering the tunnels.
The miners were trapped 900 meters deep in the tunnels of six interconnected mines, which collapsed in a chain reaction caused by the blast.
“Unfortunately, no one is alive, we are heartbroken,” Governor Garcia tweeted Thursday, announcing the end of the search.
The accident happened after a “puddle” of gas came into contact with “a spark produced by the pickaxe” of a worker, he explained on Wednesday.
The National Mining Agency tweeted that two miners were “rescued alive” shortly after the blast.
Miners’ relatives posted photos of the victims, mostly young men, on social media. Sutatausa and neighboring communities have a significant mining tradition.
Miners rescued from the rubble told AFP the chaos that followed the blast.
“I was working normally when I felt a rumble,” then “I thought I was choking and couldn’t see anything,” said Joselito Rodriguez, a 33-year-old minor, over the phone.
“Thank God we escaped unscathed, but others are already dead,” he said shortly after leaving the hospital on Wednesday, where he was being treated for respiratory failure.
Mine accidents, often caused by firedamp explosions, are common in Colombia, particularly among illegal mining operations, which are numerous in the country.
Colombia recorded 1,260 mining accidents between 2011 and May 2022 with an average annual death toll of 103 according to official figures (148 fatalities in 2021).
In August, in the same department of Cundinamarca, nine miners were rescued after the collapse of the illegal coal mine where they worked. In June, fifteen miners died at a coal mine in the municipality of Zulia, near the Venezuelan border.
Petroleum and legal mining are the main exports of Colombia, a major coal producer. According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Colombia held “53% of proven coal reserves in Latin America and 0.6% of global reserves” in 2020.
At least 130,000 people make a legal living from mining in the country, the fourth largest economy in Latin America. But the unions regularly denounce the poor working conditions, the lack of protective equipment and the working hours.