Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Three miners were feared dead inside a flooded coal mine in Assam's Dima Hasao district, authorities said on Tuesday, as rescue teams and Army personnel worked through the night to try to reach a total of nine men trapped inside.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday that navy divers have been requisitioned to assist local authorities in rescuing the nine labourers trapped inside a coal mine in Dima Hasao district as the water level inside the quarry has risen to nearly 100 feet.
The divers are flying in from Visakhapatnam and are expected to arrive soon, he said.
''Navy deep divers have been requisitioned to assist in the rescue operation. The water level inside the mine has risen to nearly 100 feet, according to the assessment by the stationed team. The divers are flying in from Visakhapatnam and are expected to arrive soon," the chief minister posted on 'X'.
Three bodies have been spotted by rescue teams but have not yet been recovered, the local government said in a statement.
Rescue operations have been continuing but no worker has been brought out of the quarry so far, a district official said.
Army personnel have been engaged to rescue the nine labourers and a relief task force comprising specialists such as divers and sappers, equipped with essential tools, reached the site in Umrangso, a defence spokesperson said.
''Engineers task force with equipment, divers and medical teams from the Indian Army and the Assam Rifles have joined the rescue efforts," he said.
"The mine got flooded yesterday — the source was internal. They (the miners) probably hit some water channel and water came out and flooded it," Mayank Kumar, district police chief in Dima Hasao told Reuters.
Kumar said rescue teams from the army, national and state disaster relief forces were working to reach the trapped miners.
All efforts are underway in close coordination with the civil administration to rescue the trapped people, another official said.
Photographs shared by the army on social media showed rescue workers with ropes, cranes and other equipment standing at the edge of a large, vertical mine.
The chief minister thanked the army for extending their help in the rescue operations.
''Much gratitude for this quick response. We are deploying all possible efforts to ensure the safe return of our miners'', the chief minister posted on the microblogging site.
NDRF and SDRF personnel are also at the site to rescue the miners trapped inside the coal mine.
Two water pumping machines were also put into use to flush out the water, another official said.
Since Monday, nine labourers have been trapped inside the mine at the Assam Coal Quarry, situated in the 3 Kilo area of Umrangso, after a sudden gush of water flooded the site.
According to employees of the quarry, there were around 15 workers inside the mine, though the authorities did not confirm the number.
The chief minister listed the names of the trapped labourers - Ganga Bahadur Shreth, Hussain Ali, Jakir Hussain, Sarpa Barman, Mustafa Seikh, Khushi Mohan Rai, Sanjit Sarkar, Lijan Magar and Sarat Goyary.
“Distressing news from Umrangshu, where labourers are trapped in a coal mine. The exact number and status are yet unknown. The DC, SP and my colleague Kaushik Rai are rushing to the site. Praying to God for everyone's safety,” Sarma had said in a post on X.
Eyewitness accounts and initial assessments suggest that the flooding occurred unexpectedly, leaving the workers unable to escape from the mine.
Rescue operations were launched immediately with teams consisting of local authorities, emergency responders and mining experts working to locate and rescue the trapped workers, the officials said.
Coal mine-related disasters in the remote northeastern part of the country are not uncommon. In one of the biggest disasters, in 2019, at least 15 miners were buried while working in an illegal mine in the neighbouring state of Meghalaya after it was flooded by water from a nearby river.
