Polish coal mine blast kills 12
Twelve miners have been killed in a methane gas explosion at a coal
mine in Ruda Slaska-Kochlowice, southern Poland, officials say.The blast
struck the Wujek-Slask mine on Friday morning, a spokeswoman for
Poland's mines authority, Edyta Tomaszewska, told reporters.She said 30
miners were taken to hospital. The blast occurred 1,050m (nearly
3,500ft) underground.The miners were working more than a kilometre
underground at the time.Several of the injured have sustained severe
burns, and medical staff have warned the death toll may rise.The
explosion is thought to have been caused by the ignition of a pocket of
methane gas.
Andrzej Bielecki, the mine's chief engineer, told Polish television
channel TVP INFO that around 40 miners had been underground in the area
at the time of the blast.Production at the mine has been halted,
although the fire has been brought under control and miners are
continuing to work in areas that have been designated as safe, he
added.The explosion is the worst mining accident in Poland since a
methane gas explosion killed 23 miners at the Halemba mine in Silesia
three years ago, says the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw.-.BBC
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