(Bogota) Eight miners were still missing on Saturday in Colombia after a firedamp explosion earlier this week in a coal mine, from which seven bodies were extracted, announced the National Agency for Mines in charge of research (ANM).
Posted at 11:13 a.m.
“Seven people are dead and eight workers are missing,” an ANM official told AFP.
Monday morning, an explosion, apparently caused by a concentration of gas, caused a fire in this mine located in the north of the country.
“About 90% of the mine has collapsed” making the work of rescuers “complex”, according to Jhon Olivares, secretary of mines in the state of Norte de Santander, a department bordering Venezuela where the mine is located in the municipality of El Zulia.
PHOTO REUTERS
Miners come out of the destroyed mine on Thursday.
Saturday, more than 70 rescuers continued the search inside the mine.
Colombia, the fourth largest economy in Latin America, recorded 148 deaths in mining accidents last year. Oil and mining extractions are the main export products of the country.