Rescuers try to free miners trapped underground after massive explosion kills 11

16 March 2023 , 07:28

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Rescuers raced down the mine after it collapsed in Colombia (Image: Cundinamarca Fire Department/AFP)

Rescuers are desperately trying to reach 10 men who are trapped after a major mine network in Colombia exploded.

The powerful explosion tore through a series of five rural coal mines interconnected by tunnels and ventilation systems, killing at least 11 people and leaving 10 others missing, the government said Wednesday.

Nine other miners who got out of the complex after the blast were taken for medical examinations, and three were still being treated Wednesday evening, officials said.

President Gustavo Petro said on his Twitter account that rescuers were making every effort to reach the missing miners

The blast, which was attributed to a build-up of methane gas, happened Tuesday night in Sutatausa, a municipality in Cundinamarca department about 75 miles (45 miles) from the capital, Bogota.

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Families nervously await news of their loved ones (AP)

Alvaro Farfan, captain of the Cundinamarca fire department, told local media the explosion affected five mines interconnected by tunnels, generating a "chain" blast with a wide impact.

Petro said 11 miners had been confirmed dead. Energy and Mines Minister Irene Velez said 10 people were unaccounted for.

Six bodies had been recovered by searchers, while five others had been sighted, said Javier Pava, director of the state-run National Unit for Disaster Risk Management.

Explosions and cave-ins are common in Colombia's coal mines.

Six bodies have been recovered from the pit (Cundinamarca Fire Department/AFP)

Last month, a similar incident happened in China, leaving 49 people missing under the rubble after a landslide buried an open-pit mine.

The death toll in the disaster has now risen to five as conditions in the area remain dangerous and the search had to be suspended for several hours after a second landslide hit the gigantic facility in Inner Mongolia’s Alxa League in northern China.

The initial cave-in of one of the pit’s walls struck at around 1pm local time on Wednesday, burying people and mining trucks who were working below in tonnes of rocks and sand.

Relatives embrace outside the mine (AP)

Five hours later an additional landslide hit, which forced the work to suspend.

The collapse left a pile of debris roughly 500m across and an estimated 80m high, with dramatic security-camera footage, showing an avalanche of rock and soil falling from one side of the mountain into the mine pit.

"I had just started work at 1.15pm when I realised that rocks were falling from the mountain," a hospitalised miner told state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday.

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