Mexico, May 04: A huge explosion in a recently opened coal mine in Coahuila state in northern Mexico has claimed three lives, injured one and left 11 others missing underground.
Rescue operations managed to recover only three bodies out of 14 trapped miners. There is little chance that the other trapped workers have survived.
The explosion occurred at 8:00 am (1300 GMT) on Tuesday and left the workers trapped some 50 meters underground on the site in Coahuila state, near the US border, AFP reported.
The state authorities, who had earlier confirmed that 14 were missing, said the condition of the remaining 11 miners was unclear some 16 hours after the blast.
Mexican Labor Minister Javier Lozano confirmed the deaths in a message on the micro-blogging website Twitter late Tuesday, warning the death toll from the accident could rise.
“The prognosis is not encouraging,” he said.
A similar blast caused by methane gas killed 65 miners in February 2006 at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in San Juan de Sabinas, near where Tuesday’s explosion occurred.
——–Agencies