President of Poland fears death of trapped miners

Polish President Andrzej Duda expressed pessimism about the fate of 10 trapped miners. “There is a high probability that there will be people killed in the Zofiowka mine, but we still hope to be able to remove the surviving miners,” the head of state, who personally came to the accident site on Saturday night, told the PAP news agency.

Mine management had previously reported that rescuers were able to locate four of the ten missing people, but had not noticed any signs of life from them. Details should be communicated to families first and then to the public. Officials would not specifically say whether the four men were dead.

After a tremor in the coal mine in southern Poland, ten miners were missing on Saturday morning. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed this on Facebook: “Another devastating news from Silesia – at 3:40 am there was a powerful tremor at the Zofiowka coal mine in Jastrzebie-Zdroj. A rescue operation is underway, unfortunately there is still no contact with ten miners,” wrote the conservative national politician. He concluded his message with a prayer to Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners.

Leaked methane makes rescue difficult

Mine management confirmed to the PAP news agency that 52 miners were in the danger zone at the time of the quake. 42 of them managed to escape unharmed on their own. The search for the other 10 men is difficult because a large amount of methane has escaped and could endanger rescuers.

On Wednesday alone there were two methane gas explosions at another mine in Silesia owned by the same company. Five men were found dead, seven more buried. The search for them was called off on Friday with no result because it had become too dangerous for the rescuers themselves.