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Race to save Polish mine workers | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Rescuers in Poland are working through the night in a desperate attempt to reach 15 miners trapped after a gas blast that killed eight colleagues. | |
The explosion took place one kilometre below ground at the Halemba coal mine in Ruda Slaska, 300km (190 miles) south-west of Warsaw. | The explosion took place one kilometre below ground at the Halemba coal mine in Ruda Slaska, 300km (190 miles) south-west of Warsaw. |
Anxious relatives have gathered at the pit head to await news. | |
Rescue work has been slowed by fears there could be another explosion of methane gas. | |
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski flew to the site of the blast and has declared a period of national mourning for the eight dead miners. | |
Grzegorz Pawlaszek, head of the state-owned coal company, said seven bodies had been recovered and the location of an eighth was known. | |
However, the high concentration of methane meant another explosion was possible and the body could not at present be retrieved. | |
The identities of the dead could not quickly be determined as their ID tags had been blown away in the blast. | |
'It is hell' | |
The fate of the 15 trapped miners is not known, although their locator devices were not transmitting. | |
There is fear. This could have happened to any of us Krzysztof Przybyla, miner | |
Mr Pawlaszek said "there is a chance to find someone still alive" but another spokesman for the company, Zbigniew Madej, admitted: "We fear the worst for the others". | |
He added: "The conditions down there are extreme. It is hell. It is impossible to breathe in the area of the explosion, the ventilation has been destroyed." | |
More than 70 rescuers are using heavy equipment to try to reach the shaft but it is not known if the breathing apparatus for the trapped miners will hold out. | |
Temperatures in the shaft have reached 40C. | |
Priests have been counselling distressed relatives. Eight candles burned on a wall at the main gate. | |
"Me and my son, we are waiting for my husband," Barbara Luczakiewicz told Reuters news agency. | |
"We hope he will get out of there. I am very scared but I haven't lost hope." | |
One miner leaving another shift at the mine, Krzysztof Przybyla, said: "There is fear. This could have happened to any of us." | |
The Southern Mining Company said the explosion happened at 1630 (1530 GMT) on Tuesday. | |
Mr Pawlaszek said the shaft had been closed in March because of high gas levels, but the miners were retrieving equipment worth £23m that had been left behind. | |
"It was new equipment and that is why we decided to retrieve it," he said. | |
Prime Minister Kaczynski said at the site: "We must still hold onto hope, but if the worst has happened, the families of the miners will receive the necessary aid." | |
The mine is in Silesia, the heartland of the Polish coal industry. | The mine is in Silesia, the heartland of the Polish coal industry. |
Unions have often complained of poor investment in the industry. More than 80 miners have died in the country since 2003. | Unions have often complained of poor investment in the industry. More than 80 miners have died in the country since 2003. |
An explosion at the Halemba pit in 1990 killed 19 miners. |