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Rescue operation underway for labourers trapped inside a coal mine, in Dima Hasao district, Assam, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025
| Photo Credit: PTI
GUWAHATI
Rescue workers on Tuesday (January 7, 2025) spotted three bodies inside a water-filled coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district where nine miners have been trapped for more than 24 hours.
A combined team of the Army, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, and Assam police began rescue operations early in the morning after reaching the mine at 3 Kilo, close to the district’s border with Meghalaya.
Also read: Assam coal mine mishap LIVE updates
The mine, believed to be about 300 ft deep, is about 30 km from Umrangso, the nearest police station. It takes about 7 hours to reach the spot from Haflong, the district headquarters.
“Three dead bodies are seen from the ground have not yet recovered (sic),” a report released by the District Disaster Management Authority at 9:08 a.m. said. A 10:30 a.m. update said the rescue operation was in progress.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma 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,” he wrote on X.
Hours after the local authorities came to know water had seeped into the mine trapping the miners at around 8 a.m. on January 6, the Assam government sought the help of the Army in the rescue operation.
Guwahati-based Defence spokesperson, Lt Col Mahender Rawat said relief columns of the Army reached Umrangso early Tuesday (January 7, 2025) morning to assist the civil administration in rescuing the trapped miners.
“Specialist divers, engineers with equipment, medical team, support staff from Army and Assam Rifles have joined the rescue efforts and are preparing for the rescue operation,” he said.
Simanta K. Das, the Dima Hasao District Commissioner said efforts were being made to pump out water from the flooded mine.
Late Monday (January 6, 2025) night, the Chief Minister released the names of the trapped miners. They are Ganga Bahadur Shreth (38) from Nepal, Sanjit Sarkar (35) from West Bengal, Hussain Ali (30), Jakir Hussain (38), Sarpa Barman (46), Mustafa Seikh (44), Khusi Mohan Rai (57), Lijan Magar (26), and Sarat Goyary (37), all from Assam.
Coal mine mishaps are quite frequent in the Northeast.
In January 2024, a fire in a coal mine in Nagaland’s Wokha district left six workers dead and four others injured. In May, of the same year, a mine in Assam’s Tinsukia district caved in, killing three miners.
In September 2022, three coal miners were killed in the Tinsukia district by inhaling suspected toxic gas.
The biggest coal mine disaster in about a decade was the death of 15 miners in a flooded rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya’s Ksan area on December 13, 2018.
Published – January 07, 2025 12:00 pm IST
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