Lalmatia, India // Rescuers pulled out two more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed coal mine in eastern India on Friday, taking the death toll to 10 as rescuers continued to search for survivors.
A massive mound of earth caved in late on Thursday at the Lalmatia open cast mine in Jharkhand state, burying at least 23 miners and dozens of vehicles as hundreds of workers battled overnight to rescue them.
“Up till now, 10 bodies have been recovered after two more were pulled out. Coal mine authorities believe that there may be two to three more dead bodies inside,” said Jharkhand police spokesman R K Mallick.
“Total dead should not be more than 13 or 14, as per assessment.”
Mr Mallick said it was difficult to know how many may be trapped, but close to a dozen workers were still unaccounted for. Media reports put the number trapped at 50.
Some of the workers had escaped the disaster site, Mr Mallick said.
Police and emergency workers used sniffer dogs, earth movers and their bare hands to remove giant rocks and mangled, overturned lorries to locate the workers trapped under tonnes of earth.
Prime minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief on Twitter and promised to help the state government in its rescue operations.
Federal disaster and rescue authorities sent more than 200 rescuers to the site.
The mine is operated by the government-owned Eastern Coalfields Limited. Its top official, Niladri Roy, said more than 250 metres of the mine collapsed as workers headed towards the exit around 7.30pm on Thursday.
There was no immediate explanation for the collapse, but the government has launched an investigation.
In a separate incident in Jharkhand on Thursday, four miners were injured in a roof collapse at the government-run Putki Balihari coal mine in Dhanbad district.
Jharkhand is one of the richest mineral zones in India, accounting for about 29 per cent of the country’s coal deposits. India has maintained a relatively safe mining record compared to neighbouring China, which on average reports around 1,000 fatalities every year.
In 2015, India recorded 38 deaths across 570 mining sites.
The last major mining accident in India occurred in 1975, when 372 workers were killed following the flooding of Chasnala mine in Dhanbad.
* Agence France-Presse