Ten people are missing after an earthquake at a mine in Poland on Saturday, the second such accident this week in a country still almost 70% dependent on coal. “Rescuers are out of contact with 10 people” who have been staying at the Zofiowka mine, said the JSW company, which also owns the Pniowek mine, where five people died on Wednesday and one left hopeless for seven others. in a press release with .
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who found the information about the accident “devastating”, said he would go there. He also hopes “that there will be no deaths and that the rescuers will find the minors they are looking for alive.”
42 miners unharmed
According to JSW, the quake happened on Saturday at 3:40 a.m. local time at a depth of 900 meters in the Zofiowka mine. It was accompanied by a large methane leak. Fifty-two miners were near where the quake occurred. 42 of them were able to return to the surface unharmed.
Twelve rescue teams were involved in the rescue operation. According to a statement by JSW, they had made progress in their search and by midday were about 600 meters from where the wanted minors may be located.
Saturday’s accident is the second in four days in Poland. Five people died in a firedamp explosion in the Pniowek mine on Wednesday. There was no news of seven others still at the mine, while the rescue operation, which was deemed “dangerous” after several other methane blasts, was officially called off on Friday. Twenty people were hospitalized, including six with severe burns from that accident.